Uroboros: Resident Evil V
by Liquid
Summary: A decade after the events that destroyed Raccoon City, BSAA Agent Chris Redfield is sent to Africa to investigate reports of a new, more dangerous outbreak. Now with his assigned partner, Sheva Alomar, Chris must fight to discover who is really behind this threat... and to discover the dark secrets of a weapon known only as Uroboros.
1. Chapter 1 A Changing World

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter One: A Changing World**

I feel like I should have seen it coming… hell, we all probably should have, but that's the thing about hindsight, isn't it? It's easy to look back at an event and say that you should have seen this, or that you should have put two and two together and avoided… whatever it is you're talking about. Too bad it isn't that easy when you're going through such an important event, and more often than not, you don't even grasp the significance of such things until afterward… I mean, do you think that I understood how much the world was about to change while I was trapped in the Spencer Estate back in '98?

Anyway, regardless of who understood what, it didn't take long at all after the fall of the Umbrella Corporation for their bioweapons to end up in the hands of terrorists, and now the biggest threat to the world was no longer some gigantic pharmaceutical conglomerate trying to make money off of armed conflict. Never in my life would I have thought that I'd be looking back on things like the Raccoon City outbreak or the Starlight disaster as simpler times, but in all honesty, they were. Umbrella was organized and had at least some safeties in place, no matter how sick their experiments were, but now… now it was like anyone and their brother could get a hold of BOW's for the right price.

At first it was larger groups, like Los Illuminados in Spain with their elaborate plot to kidnap the President's daughter, and Il Veltro in the Mediterranean with their plan to destroy the city of Terragrigia because of… well, I still don't really understand what the hell their problem was, because Terragrigia was a great place while I was there. But that's the thing about terrorists, when they see something that's better than what they have, instead of trying to improve their own situation, they just start blowing things up so that no one else can have it, either.

Still, even dealing with larger, organized terror groups was easier than when BOW's started hitting the black market of less stable countries. Vulnerable places that didn't have large militaries or police forces to protect the people, and where any would-be warlord could buy a few canisters of T-Virus and completely shift the balance of power across an entire region. The worst part about those kind of people, though, was that they didn't care about anyone other than themselves, meaning that everyone around them could be ripped to shreds by hunters, as long as they had money and were safe in their fortress.

As much as I hate Umbrella for what they did, most of their people were trained scientists who could _usually_ handle things like weaponized viruses, while the bioterrorists of this modern age of 2010 are, well… not trained in anything except how to be violent thugs and cause trouble for the good people around them. But how do they get a hold of these materials in the first place, you might ask? How _does_ some angry farmer from the middle of nowhere get his hands on something that lets him overthrow a government? Greed is the only answer… greed, and a complete lack of compassion for those around you.

There are a few notable exceptions, such as when Tobias Liquid escaped from an Umbrella facility underneath Sheena Island with a BOW known as Gillette, or when Osmund Saddler engineered a viral plague from the cells of an ancient parasite buried underneath a castle in Spain, but usually it's because they had help. In Saddler's short-lived scheme for world domination, his influence wasn't able to spread beyond the land owned by the Salazar family, without the aid of an American named Jack Krauser. Krauser kidnapped the President's daughter so that she could be infected as well, and they might have succeeded if it wasn't for Leon Kennedy.

Similarly, when Il Veltro attacked the city of Terragrigia, it was because they had been completely supplied with both a virus and BOW's by Morgan Lansdale, who was the head of the Federal Bioterrorism Commission. His plan was to backstab the terrorists after the attack, and use the whole event as an excuse to make his organization more powerful, which worked for about a year until his actions came to light. Yeah, the BSAA came out on top of the whole mess, but was the cost worth it? Hell, sometimes I wonder if any of this is worth it… to us or even to the terrorists, who more often than not end up as victims of their own scheme.

Over the last few years, more and more _dealers_ of such materials have popped up, seemingly from nowhere. Some of them are scientists with former ties to Umbrella, and others are just businessmen who use their legitimate work as cover for what they really do when traveling the world. Sometimes these dealers just take their money and vanish, and other times the terrorists are just used as a way to gather data on the field effectiveness of certain BOW's to impress larger buyers. Either way, a huge mess is always left behind, and the BSAA is the only organization equipped to deal with it.

Granted, we're a lot bigger than when we started back in 2000, with eight divisions all around the world, each headed by an Assistant Director who reports to Barry Burton himself, but as the BSAA became able to act on a global scale, our theater of action enlarged just as quickly. As the sale and use of bio-organic weapons escalated, it became more difficult to handle everything at once, leaving some fires put out quickly, while others that were deemed _lower priority_ only escalated into a full blown panic.

We all do what we can, and there are a few brand new organizations like TerraSave starting up, but those guys are more like the Red Cross and are only the most useful after the largest part of the conflict is over. Don't get me wrong, the world needs people like TerraSave, since the BSAA can't always stay and help rebuild before the next conflict arises, and there's _always_ a next conflict these days. I remember when Raccoon City was considered to be an isolated incident, but now the fear of _another Raccoon City_ happening a part of the world where there's nothing to stop it from spreading…

You'd think that right there would be enough to stop people from selling the shit to terrorists, or anyone in general, but it's not. They just don't care, and it's that lack of caring that makes me question sometimes if all this is worth fighting for. In the years since Raccoon City, I've struggled to rid the world of bioterrorism, but it just seems sometimes that the more we fight, the more people there are that want to either buy or sell. The latest of these dealers to pop up is a man called Ricardo Irving, or at least that's what the Intel reports said. Like many others, he was a nobody before, and probably thinks that selling the stuff is gonna be his _big break_.

Also like many others, his target is an impoverished region in West Africa called _Kijuju_, which was actually doing pretty well for itself before a civil war destabilized the government. The conflict itself might be over, but it takes a lot of time for any new government to assert itself, and in the meantime the people of Kijuju and in the surrounding autonomous zone have been left to fend for themselves. I'm being sent into Kijuju with the hopes of catching Irving in the act, and then apprehending him before the handoff to his buyer can be made. If we can catch him, then not only will the buyer's plans be stopped, but then we can also determine if Irving has any partners as well.

To get to Kijuju, I'll be traveling from the closest BSAA base, heading alone across the savanna to avoid suspicion. This is because the main force, led by Captain Dan DeChant, will be storming as loudly as they can into where the deal is taking place, so that Irving makes a run for it. No doubt there will be some kind of ambush ready at the deal location, but we want the dealer alive, so while DeChant's Alpha Team is taking care of any resistance there, I'll be waiting to grab Irving as soon as he leaves the safety of his base. Only problem is that Americans like me aren't very popular in this part of the world, but hopefully the contact I'm meeting just outside the zone will help smooth things over with the locals.

It's going to be strange to have a partner again, even if I know that they are necessary for me to be able to get around in this part of the world, since it will be the first time I've been assigned to work with someone ever since Jill… no, this isn't the time to go down that road. I need to keep my head out of the past and stay focused… the only thing that's important right now is that I've got a job to do, and that thousands of innocent people… maybe more, are counting on me.

One good thing about being trapped in the middle of a potentially viral outbreak situation is that it doesn't give you much time to think about anything else, even the event itself on a grander scale, but it's hard not to think when you're driving a Humvee across the plains of Africa with no one to talk too, and nothing but a bunch of static-laced crap on local radio. I don't speak _Swahili_, which probably isn't the best prerequisite for being sent into Africa alone, but hey, Leon Kennedy didn't speak a word of _Spanish_ when he had to go save Ashley Graham from Spain, so I'm sure I'll be able to manage.

The roads leading toward the city are mostly just beaten down dirt paths that weave around the Umbrella Thorn Acacia trees, and if a driver isn't paying attention the potholes are big enough to completely destroy a vehicle. I wanted to use a jeep, since it would have been better on gas, not to mention lighter on all the obstacles, but the biggest reason was that it's hot as hell driving around the savanna inside of a big metal box. The sun is merciless, especially if you're not from this part of the world, and even with the air conditioner on its still plenty hot… damn bulletproof windows don't even roll down.

At least I'm getting closer to the city now, the trails are more flattened from regular use, and there's starting to be more people around. Let's just hope my contact's there to meet me once I enter Kijuju City, because it's going to be really hard for me to find them without speaking the language.


	2. Chapter 2 Sheva Alomar

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Two: Sheva Alomar**

"_Nini kuzimu unafanya nini hapa, kijana mweeupe_?" A passing man hissed angrily. "_Niangalie tena, nitakuua_!"

"Hi, how's it going?" Chris replied with a polite wave as the man kept going. "Nice people around here."

After reaching the first part of what he guessed was the main city, the Agent pulled his Humvee over to the side of the dirt road next to the wall of a concrete building, only to discover that it was even hotter outside once he got out. It was around noon now, with visible heat waves coming off the buildings that had tin roofs, and… God damn that sun was merciless. The Humvee had been a sweat box for sure, but at least inside of the armored vehicle the sun couldn't touch him, and… Jesus, if there was only a way to take the air conditioner with him, since from what he heard, the rest of the journey was to be on foot.

It was hard to tell if this was the poor or rich part of town, since some of the buildings were made of concrete, while others were made of wood that looked like it was starting to rot, and others still looked like a few planks that were held together by sheets of rusting aluminum. All of the roads were hard packed dirt, though, and a lot smoother than the trails outside the city, probably because of how many people were walking on them, and as for the people themselves, well… they seemed agitated.

From the dirt that most of them had on their clothes, Chris guessed that this was a working class neighborhood. Some of the nearby men were wheeling covered carts down the street, and there was a woman walking along while balancing a very large basket on top of her head… and that was when the Agent realized that he had no idea what this Sheva Alomar looked like. This was the right spot, as he had confirmed with the GPS on his watch several times since reaching the city, and hopefully his contact would be there soon since…

"Welcome to Africa, Mr. Redfield." A female voice said from behind. "I was worried that you would be hard to find, but it turns out that you kind of stand out around here."

Turning around to face the owner of the voice, Chris was surprised to find a young woman standing in front of him. She was small built, no bigger than his sister, Claire, and wearing the standard uniform of the BSAA, similar to his own fatigues. You know, now that he thought about it, the Agent wondered if maybe it would have been a better idea after all to wear clothes like the locals, to blend in... but the suits back at Headquarters had decided that all of the Agents were going with standard gear. Something about letting everyone know that it was the BSAA who was keeping them safe from terrorists.

"My friends call me Chris." He said, shaking her hand. "I take it you're Sheva; nice to meet you."

As soon as these short pleasantries were over, the young woman motioned for him to follow, since the operation was scheduled to begin soon, and there was no time for _sightseeing_, as she called it. Now, the plan was for DeChant's team to storm the deal's location through the front door, and as such had cleared their arrival through official channels, whereas Chris and Sheva were going in the back way with all the other civilians. Unfortunately, this meant passing through any civilian checkpoints that divided the city's several districts, and in places like this that could get a little rough… especially when the government hadn't quite taken full control of the area just yet.

One such checkpoint was only a few blocks down the street from where he had parked the Humvee, made up of a rolling sheet metal gate that was guarded by three stern looking gentlemen with red berets on their head… along with automatic rifles slung across their backs. Sheva's advice to him about approaching such a situation was to act natural like nothing was wrong, but don't make eye contact with them, and for the love of God let her do all the talking. This was fine, since again he didn't speak the local language, although the Agent wasn't too fond of the way the guard's eyes traveled up and down Sheva's body as they approached.

"_Acha hapo_." He said, putting up his hand. "_Utatafutwa; wale ambao wanapinga watapigwa risasi… wewe wa kwanza, mrembo_."

With a hungry look in his eyes, the guard began to very thoroughly search the young woman, and Chris might have been tempted to say something about him grabbing her rear, if at the same time another guard hadn't begun searching the Agent just as roughly. It was a good thing that the two of them weren't carrying any weapons, since they would have quickly been discovered as the guard went through his pockets, ending the search by squeezing his rear roughly… and then making Chris feel a bit uncomfortable when the guard did an air kiss at him before pushing him forward.

"We are good to go." Sheva said as the guard counted the money she had given him. "And it was not nearly as expensive as I thought… come along, our contact isn't far."

The guard who had searched the young woman signaled for the others to pull the rolling gate open, only to slam it shut again once they were through… but not before the guard who had searched Chris gave him a smile and a wink. With a _screech_ of rusted metal and then an echoing _slam_, the gate was shut again, and the two of them were in a whole new district of the city. Everything was built the same as before, only with a lot more wooden kiosks set up with stacked fruit, jewelry, and such… of course, the fruit was rotting away, attracting a large amount of flies that none of the people there seemed to notice.

What the people _did _seem to notice, however, was the two of them, with everyone stopping what they were doing as they passed by. Women carrying baskets stopped and stared, only to resume their walk once Chris and Sheva got farther away, and even a group of children who were playing ball in the street did the same thing. The only people who didn't seem to stop were a group of young men… teenagers, probably, who were… wait a minute, were they dragging someone off behind a house?

Moving away from the still walking Sheva, the Agent followed the group of teenagers around the corner of the house, hearing him cry out in what sounded like fear as the others manhandled him. This little trek of theirs continued back around the rest of the house and into the street, where the biggest of the teenagers was holding the victim against a tree by the shirt. He didn't know what was being said, but it didn't sound friendly, especially when the victim cried out in pain when the bigger one punched him in the stomach. No matter what country this was, bullying was still wrong, so Chris was about to intervene, only to be surprised when his partner stopped him by grabbing onto his arm.

"Chris, you cannot get involved." She warned as the teenagers dragged the victim away after glaring at him. "The young man is probably a thief who they caught, and… and the locals have their own way of dealing with such crimes."

As much as he wanted to help the poor kid, the young woman was probably right, especially since the point of them sneaking through the back was to draw as little attention to themselves as possible. Chris hated bullies, though, and had to grit his teeth while walking away… people like _Albert Wesker_ were bullies… bullies who used force to take what they wanted, no matter how many people got hurt in the process. Yeah, he knew that those teenagers weren't Wesker, nothing close to him, but he still hated to see things like that happen, especially when the victim was outnumbered six to one.

"Just keep walking, and act like nothing is wrong." The young woman said quietly. "Our contact is just up ahead."

Taking a deep breath, and returning his thoughts to the mission, Chris looked up and saw that Sheva was walking them toward what looked like a butcher shop, based on the meat that could be seen hanging on hooks through the window. _Corner Pyamy_ was written in large letters across the top of the building, and as they approached a man was visible behind the counter, taking coins in exchange for a large piece of meat that… well, didn't exactly look fresh. Waiting until the customer left, another angry looking man who stopped what he was doing and stared at Chris until he and Sheva passed by, the man behind the counter greeted them very loudly in the local language as he would any other customer.

"I was starting to think you would not make it." He said much quieter, in heavily accented English while adjusting the scarf around his head. "Now, act like you are upset, and then go around to the side door."

The first part of this instruction confused the Agent, until the butcher spat at them, before yelling something in Swahili that was probably pretty offensive, and slamming down the store's metal shutter as if he wanted nothing to do with them. This made sense now, even though Chris didn't like having to wipe a stranger's spit from his forehead, since this guy needed to keep his cover by acting like he hated Americans just as much as everyone else in Kijuju City appeared to, and any moment now the locals were probably going to burst out laughing at the Agent's misfortune… except no one did.

Only a moment ago there had been all kinds of movement and sounds coming from the people of this district, but now there was only the soft rustling of the wind. He probably should have just kept going, but Chris couldn't help but look back the way they came, gasping when he saw that the previously filled street was now completely empty. The women carrying baskets, the men pushing carts, even those children playing ball had just up and disappeared, leaving no visible trace that they had ever been there in the first place.

"Yeah, that's never good." He said quietly, looking around for any signs of life before heading toward the shop's side door. "I think we should probably get inside."

"No kidding." The young woman replied, also looking at the empty streets as they rounded the corner. "I hate to say this, Chris, but you are becoming a very popular man around here."


	3. Chapter 3 Escalation of Force

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Three: Escalation of Force**

It was nice to get indoors, away from the somewhat hostile people out in the city, but as the butcher closed and locked the shop's side door behind them, Chris realized that the smell was not so inviting. All through the back of the shop there were huge slabs of fresh red meat hanging on large hooks from the ceiling, which was common in parts of the world where things like industrial freezers and even household refrigerators were considered a luxury… but that didn't help the Agent's sense of smell.

Now that the city outside had fallen silent, the only sounds were that of a few small electric fans blowing the air around, as well as the light buzzing of flies that were circling some of the meat as the butcher led them toward the very back. This man with the scarf around his head, as Chris learned from Sheva, was Reynard Fisher, a former agent of his country's Security Ministry, but now a deep cover operative for the West Africa branch of the BSAA. For the past few months he had been stationed within Kijuju city, and the Intel he provided was partly responsible for Ricardo Irving getting identified as a potential dealer in BOW materials.

"We do not have much time before the operation begins." Reynard said quietly while peeking out the windows. "Your weapons are in that case, check them and get ready to move out."

Since no weapons could have been carried in through the check point, and the two of them were trying to maintain as low of a profile as possible, Chris opened the metal case on the nearby table to find a pair of _Beretta 92FS_ 9mm pistols, along with a few extra clips. Not exactly the desired amount of firepower for apprehending a suspected arms dealer in the middle of a potentially hostile city, but at least the weapons were in good condition, with a clean barrel and an easy slide, which was actually more than the Agent expected.

While the equipment was being checked, the butcher gave them what little Intel had been gathered since the last update, starting with a confirmation that Irving had been sighted in the area just a few hours earlier, and then describing the current climate of the city itself. He wasn't sure if it was because of the recent change in government, or the recent influx of BSAA foreigners, but for the last week or so the locals had become more and more on edge. At first it had only been a few rabble-rousers speaking out against outsiders, since the last thing everyone wanted after the civil war was more trouble, but then the dissent quickly spread.

"The people around here are becoming unhinged, whatever the reason." Reynard continued, making another check out the window. "There are whispers of greater action being taken, and it is getting so that even residents like myself have to be careful going out after dark… good thing for you the sun is high, yes?"

Chris could only scoff in agreement, thankful when the butcher led them to the back door of the shop, since now he and Sheva would be able to get this whole thing over with. The Agent had been in a lot of bad places in his life, but Kijuju City just made him feel uncomfortable in a different kind of way. It wasn't like during the conflicts with Umbrella or Veltro, where zombies and monsters were around every corner, it was just… different, like a sense of impending dread that wasn't coming from anywhere in particular. Yeah, it was sure going to be nice to get out of there once they captured Irving.

"One last thing." The butcher said after unlocking the door. "When I was gathering the latest Intel on Irving, I heard him mention the name _Uroboros_ a few times during a phone call… you have heard this before?"

"Uroboros?" The Agent asked, exchanging glances with Sheva. "I don't think so, no… what is it, some kind of code word? The name of his buyer, maybe?"

Reynard could only shrug, clearly not knowing either, and with that the two of them were ushered out of the shop, where just like he had done before, the butcher slammed down the metal shutter to make the locals think he didn't want anything to do with them. Fine, if that was what kept him safe, and now that he and the young woman were armed, all they had to do was head a few more blocks down the street toward what their informant had described as a sort of _warehouse district_ for this part of the city. As far as he knew, the deal was taking place inside of the old recycling center… which was a fancy way to describe the furnace where all the trash that could be burned was, well… burned.

Apparently the facility wasn't seeing much use these days, since the streets were littered with paper and other trash that was just blowing around, along with things that couldn't be burned, like the metal frames of old cars that had broken down and then been stripped of every useful part. The good news was that with the streets being as deserted as they were, it was going to be easy to reach the deal location… at least it _was_ going to be easy, until a sudden scream reached the Agent's ears.

"Chris, don't!" Sheva warned urgently, trying to stop him without making too much noise. "Chris, the mission!"

But it was too late; the scream that he heard sounded terrified and desperate, coming from the second floor of the concrete building immediately to the right, and with his instincts kicking in, the Agent immediately ran through the open door. Yeah, he heard the young woman calling for him to stop as he went up the concrete stairs, but her policy of not interfering in local affairs wasn't going to stop him from helping someone in trouble, especially since he already felt like shit for letting the teenagers drag that other boy away.

The scream had come from behind a wooden door at the top of the stairs, but now it had been replaced by the sounds of some kind of struggle, with someone gagging and coughing like they were being strangled. Drawing his pistol, and kicking the door open, Chris entered what looked like a small flat, and quickly discovered three men holding another down on the floor on his back while one of them was… what the hell was he doing? The attacker's back was to him, making it hard to tell exactly what he was doing, but it looked like he was either forcing something into the victim's mouth, or removing something from it, maybe?

"Hey, get off him!" The Agent yelled, aiming his pistol. "I said step away!"

Even if they didn't understand English, the attackers were sure to understand the threat of a gun pointed at them, and for once they complied. Giving him an angry look, and then snarling as they ran away through another door, the attackers vanished as quickly as they appeared, climbing out the small window while Chris went to check on their victim. Instead of being grateful, however, the man shoved him away with his arms, continuing to cough and gag as if still being choked. In desperation for air, he scrambled to his feet and ran for the other side of the apartment, but only got a few steps before falling to his knees.

Whatever was caught in his throat must have been cleared, because the victim was breathing again, but now he was just kneeling there with his back to them, making a kind of growling noise that was maybe… catching his breath? For several seconds the man stayed this way, with Chris not sure what he could do for him, but then the victim sharply turned back toward them, now with a wild look in his heavily bloodshot eyes… before screaming in animalistic rage as he sprinted right toward them at full speed.

Caught off guard by this sudden act of aggression by someone he had just saved, the Agent just stood there while the man ran right past him, but then snapped out of it when the victim collided with Sheva, forcing her out of the flat, and causing himself and the young woman to go tumbling back down the stairs toward the street. Still not understanding what had just happened, Chris followed them as quickly as he could, seeing them separate after reaching the bottom of the stairs, and then trying to move faster when the man attacked again.

Sheva was dazed from the fall, and this allowed the victim to get on top of her, putting his hands around the young woman's throat and squeezing while she tried to break his grip. _Whack_! Unable to risk taking a shot with Sheva right there, the Agent swung his pistol as soon as he reached the bottom of the stairs, bringing the weapon across the man's head hard enough to get him off of her, and then hitting him a second time, knocking the snarling man down again just as he was about to attack.

"Stop, God damn it!" He yelled, aiming his pistol. "Last chance, just fucking stop!"

_Bang_! The victim, who had turned into a full blown psychopath in a matter of seconds, had no intention of stopping, so Chris aimed lower and put a bullet into the man's leg, making him yelp in surprise as he fell on his face. Expecting him to finally see reason after that hit, the Agent started to relax, only to gasp and reflexively pull the trigger again when the man jumped up to grab him, regardless of the bullet in his leg. This time the bullet went right into the victim's forehead, causing his eyes to cross as he stumbled sideways, and making a couple awkward grabs at Chris like he was still trying to attack, before finally collapsing.

"Damn it, I told him to stop." He said, helping Sheva to her feet. "Are you all right?"

"Just a wound to my pride." The young woman replied, rubbing her sore hip once she was on her feet. "He took most of the hits on the way down, but… what the hell just happened? He was like a man possessed by the Devil."

Chris hated that he was forced to take lethal action against a civilian, but the guy hadn't given him any other choice. So, had he read the situation up in the flat wrong? Were those other guys just trying to restrain the lunatic who was attacking them? This incident would have to be reported once contact with HQ was available again, since the Agent's personal radio was only for short range local communication, but suddenly these thoughts were interrupted by another scream ringing out, not from one of the nearby buildings this time… but from behind them, back toward the butcher shop.


	4. Chapter 4 Public Square

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Four: Public Square**

Only a few seconds before, the whole city had been deathly quiet, but now everything seemed to come to life again, at least over near the butcher shop where a small crowd had descended. Screaming and snarling like the man inside the flat, the people were in some kind of violent rage as they threw themselves at every vulnerable part of the small building; smashing through wooden shutters on windows with their bare fists, while others worked together to pull on the metal rollup gate until it was ripped from its hinges with a metallic _screech_.

Once these obstacles were out of the way, the angry crowd stormed into Corner Pyamy like they were the SWAT team of the local police force, breaking everything inside the shop that they came across, judging by the noise that they were making, but then getting even louder when the group that entered started to come back out while dragging the butcher out into the street by his arms.

"_Unifikiria unafanya nini_?!" Reynard yelled to be heard above the still yelling crowd. "_Mimi sio mgeni, mimi ni mmoja wako_!"

Whatever he was saying, the locals obviously didn't like it, since the next thing they did was toss the butcher on the ground and start kicking him. Regardless of trying to keep a low profile or not, Reynard was one a member of the BSAA, and Chris couldn't just let him get beaten to death. So he readied his pistol while starting to run toward the crowd with the hope of just scaring them off with a few shots, but the Agent only got a couple steps before another of the locals came running out of the nearby alley with something in his hands.

_Whack_! Seeing the movement out of the corner of his eye, Chris's mind had just registered that the man coming toward him was holding a short piece of wood, when it was brought across his head with enough force to make his vision go white for a second. When everything came back into focus a second later, the Agent was on the ground while Sheva was struggling with that same man who was now going after her. Managing to make him drop the board, the young woman brought her knee up into his stomach, putting the attacker off balance enough so that she could spin around and kick him in the chest.

Her attacker hit the ground with a hard _thud_, but then Sheva was tackled by two more of the enraged people, and Chris was getting up to help her, when more of them descended on him as well. Now being kicked and stomped by maybe half a dozen people until he couldn't fight back any longer, two of them now held the Agent down, twisting his arms behind his back so that another of them could tie his wrists together with an old rope. As soon as he was secured, the people pulled him to his feet, allowing him to see that Sheva was being restrained in the same way, with one of the locals tightly gripping her hair to make her walk forward.

At some point another of the crowd picked up their pistols, yelling as he held them up, and causing another of the locals to punch Chris in the face when everyone got even angrier for a moment. Reynard was being marched along as well as the crowd turned down one of the smaller alleyways, allowing the Agent to see nothing but a wall of decaying buildings on each side until everything opened up. As soon as the alley came to an end, the three prisoners were moved into a very large open area that was filled with some abandoned looking market stalls, an old stone well, and some kind of platform that actually looked newer than everything else around it.

Constructed mostly of metal poles with wooden planks fastened to the top of each section, there was a ramp that had been built that circled the whole thing twice in order to reach every level, and ending at the very top where a man with short hair and sunglasses was yelling into a small megaphone. Every time this instigator spoke, the people would start yelling or snarling again, but suddenly the whole crowd started cheering when Reynard was pushed up the start of the ramp, followed by Sheva and then Chris.

"You have to do something!" The butcher pleaded, getting pushed forward when he tried to look back. "These people are going to kill us… call for backup!"

But the Agent couldn't call for backup, even if he had been able to reach his radio, since all of the BSAA's other assets in the area were getting ready to storm the location where the deal was going down. Even if Headquarters was willing to trash the whole mission to rescue the three of them, which Chris doubted, there was no way for DeChant's Alpha Team to get to them in time, and… and God, there were so many people down there rioting in the square. It was as if this whole district of Kijuju were united in the cause of… whatever in the hell these people wanted.

The man leading the march handed the instigator the two recovered pistols, which he put on his belt after causing the whole crowd to snarl when he held them up in a signal of victory. Then the three of them were made to face the crowd, and in all their excitement no one seemed to notice how Chris was slowly twisting his wrists back and forth in an effort to free himself. The ropes were thick, but the material was old and dry to the point where hopefully he would be able to wear it out enough to escape. This man with the megaphone was clearly a local leader, so maybe they could all get away if they took him hostage… maybe.

"_Watu wan je wanapenda kuharibu jamil yetu_!" The instigator shouted into the megaphone while the three of them were forced to kneel on the platform just below. "_Wanageuza watu wetu dhidi yetu, kama msaliti huyu hapa_!"

"_Haujui unazungumza nini_!" Reynard shouted in response. "_Sijafanya chochote kibaya, mimi ni mmoja wako_!"

For a moment Chris was starting to think that whatever the butcher was saying was starting to reach them, since the roar of the crowd started to fade… but then the angry people started to slowly clap their hands in a rhythmic fashion while a path was slowly cleared down below for… what the hell was that? As the angry mob got out of the way, there was someone approaching… someone really tall and stocky whose face was covered by a black hood like a medieval executioner… and who was dragging a really big axe behind him. At least, it looked like an axe… more like a fence post with a sharpened piece of scrap metal on top.

"_Hawa wan je wataonja blade_!" The instigator said grimly, no longer yelling as the executioner approached the platform. "_Tutawabariki kwa kifo takatifu na kuwaokoa kutoka kwa vifungo vya uovu_!"

Reynard was screaming for his life in an unintelligible mixture of English and Swahili, and even Sheva was starting to panic when the platform shook with the executioner's first steps on the ramp. The young woman was frantically pulling on her own ropes, trying to break them, but that wasn't the right way… but it wasn't like he could just tell her to do it how he was, since the whole escape plan would be ruined if even a single person nearby spoke English. The executioner was getting closer now, stomping his way around the first platforms as he moved up the ramp, the makeshift axe scraping loudly against the metal behind him… damn it, the ropes were so stubborn.

With just a little more time the Agent would be free, but at that moment the executioner reached the platform, and two men forced the screaming Reynard to bend forward. Now a shadow moved overhead as the big man lifted the axe with surprisingly little effort, swinging it overhead, and causing blood to spray all over Sheva and the closest people in the crowd as the butcher's head was taken off with a loud _whump_! The axe's blade was so big that it took off the head of one of the men holding him as well, but none of the rioters seemed to notice, their cheers drowning out Sheva's scream as Reynard's body collapsed.

The instigator started yelling again as the executioner took a single step forward to be able to reach the shaking young woman, lifting his axe just like he did before… and that was when Chris's ropes finally broke. Flinging himself forward as soon as his arms were free, the Agent tackled the executioner just as he was in mid-swing, and therefore off balance, causing both of them to tumble from the platform as the crowd fell silent. The giant axe was left on the ramp somewhere while the two of them crashed into the ground, and thankfully the big man was on bottom, making him take the force of the fall while Chris rolled away.

He expected the people to attack him right away, scrambling to his feet in the hope of distracting them long enough for Sheva to get away, but instead they resumed that slow rhythmic clapping they had done before. Now the crowd was backing away, forming a large circle around the two of them while the big man got up, and now the instigator was yelling again. He sounded a lot more excited, though, and so did the crowd, all of them cheering and giving Chris angry looks as the executioner started walking toward him.

Oh shit, the Agent thought as he realized that the crowd now expected a fight instead of a simple execution. There was no way out, not with the human wall that had formed around them, and with his pistol still on the instigator's belt up at the top of the platform, there was only one thing to do… fight dirty. Reaching down and grabbing a handful of dirt just as the big man was getting close enough to reach him, Chris tossed it into the executioner's eyes before picking up a rock and ramming it right into his opponent's hood covered face.

All around him, the locals growled and snarled as the executioner stumbled a bit from the blow, staggered again after the second hit with the rock, and then the third nearly making the big man fall over. However, just as Chris was swinging his arm for what he hoped was the finisher, the executioner caught the rock in his hand, ripping the improvised weapon from the Agent's hand before kicking him in the chest. With the wind completely knocked out of him as he stumbled backwards and fell down, the Agent coughed while looking up to see the big man slowly crushing the rock in his large hand… and then dropping the pieces while walking toward Chris once again.


	5. Chapter 5 Tactical Retreat

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Five: Tactical Retreat**

"_Mgeni atafuka kifo cha nguruwe_!" The instigator yelled through the megaphone. "_Watu wote wa nje watabakwa ngozi akiwa hai!_"

For a moment Chris was flying, only to grunt in pain when he hit the ground and rolled to a stop as a result of being grabbed and tossed away by the executioner. The crowd seemed pretty happy about it, though, cheering and screaming every time the big man managed to get a hold of him, and the instigator up on top of the platform was even worse. That frantic, booming voice on the megaphone echoed through public square as the Agent got to his feet, backing away and starting to move around the platform so that he would have more time to think while the executioner slowly pursued… hey, maybe he wouldn't expect another direct attack.

Suddenly sprinting forward while balling up his fists, Chris slugged the big man in the side of the face, before ducking underneath the attempt to grab him that followed, and then coming back up for another hard hit to the executioner's hood covered face. Even though the big man was far stronger than the Agent, he was a lot slower, too, allowing Chris to duck and circle around behind him to avoid the powerful punch that came as retaliation, before kicking the executioner in the side of the knee.

None of these attacks were very effective, but they did allow him to jump up onto the big man's back in order to put him in a sleeper hold, but as soon as the Agent locked his arms into place around that big neck, the executioner began flailing around wildly in an attempt to grab him. This whole experience was like riding a mechanical bull, with Chris having to hold on for dear life while his enemy stomped around the area, sending one of the locals flying when they got hit by a swing of the executioner's powerful arm.

Maybe if he hadn't already been worn out from all the fighting he could have held on for longer, but after a couple more locals were struck by wild arm swings, all it took was a quick spin of the executioner's body to send the Agent tumbling to the ground. God, this was a lot easier back when he was twenty five, Chris thought as he picked up a broken piece of a rusted fence post that was laying nearby, remembering how he had gotten through the whole incident at the Spencer Estate without really getting that tired… scared as hell, but not tired. All right, he thought as he slowly got up again… time for round three.

Moving forward to meet the approaching executioner while swinging the rusted fence post with all his remaining strength, the Agent aimed right for the big man's throat, only to have the makeshift weapon pulled out of his grip when the executioner caught it in his big hand. All around them the crowd stopped cheering in order to resume the slow rhythmic clapping as the big man showed the metal fence post to Chris before effortlessly bending it into the shape of a horseshoe… before dropping it and punching the Agent in the head.

With his vision somehow tilting the opposite way that he fell down, Chris tried to get up, but he was so dazed by that last hit that his body wasn't responding as the executioner slowly stomped his way toward him. _Bang_! Suddenly a gunshot rang out, causing everyone in the crowd to fall silent just as the instigator crashed to the ground in a heap… with a bullet hole in the back of his head. _Bang! Bang! Bang! _Three more shots went off, causing a small spray of slightly discolored blood as each bullet slammed into the big man's body, two in the torso and one in the head, causing the executioner to stumble a bit before falling to his knees.

"Chris?!" Sheva's voice called just before she came into view. "Chris, are you all right?!"

The young woman must have gotten out of her ropes during the fight, and used the distraction to pull their pistols out of the instigator's belt before shooting him. Now she was helping Chris up with one hand while aiming her weapon at the crowd with a sweeping motion, but why weren't they attacking? Not that the Agent minded everyone in public square keeping their distance, since it was giving him the time he needed both to catch his breath _and_ for his vision to come back into focus, but… but why was the crowd starting to do that slow clap again?

As if in an answer to his question, the executioner groaned before lifting his head up, and then the locals started to cheer angrily when the big man got to his feet like he didn't have a bullet in his head. His vision was still a little blurred, but that didn't stop Chris from aiming his pistol once Sheva pushed it into his hands, and joining her in emptying their clips into their enemy's head. Well, to tell the truth it was the young woman who actually hit him the most times, since thanks to the blows he had taken, the Agent managed to hit others in the crowd more than the executioner, but the good news was that the big man went down again as a result.

Thankfully, Chris's head was almost clear now, but that just allowed him to realize that even if the two of them managed to kill the executioner… who was getting up again… he doubted that the hostile people there were just going to let them walk away. But how was it possible that the big man was getting up again after being shot more than a dozen times, unless… was he infected with something? No, that couldn't be… sure, there was supposedly a deal for BOW materials happening in this district of Kijuju, but as troubled as the city was, there wasn't supposed to be any type of infection there. Besides, what kind of viral infection could have caused the kind of behavior that these people were showing?

"Chris, we can't just stay here." Sheva said, reloading her pistol as they backed away from the approaching executioner. "Even if we manage to win here, look at these people… they're going to _kill_ us. What are we going to do?"

"I don't know, Sheva, I don't know." He replied, his eyes moving around the area desperately for something to help them. "We have to… hey, wait a second… that's it!"

The only idea that came into the Agent's mind was a long shot, and would probably get them killed even faster than staying where they were, but there were no other options. The sheer number of hostile locals around them made escape impossible even if the executioner wasn't slowly stomping his way after them, so Chris grabbed the young woman by forearm and pulled her along as he started running at full speed… right toward the old stone well that he had seen when they were being brought up to the platform for execution.

Sheva tried to hesitate, asking him if he was serious, and then yelling something in Swahili when she realized that she was too small to stop him from pulling her along. The locals started getting angry again as if sensing what they were about to do, with some of them starting to throw pieces of wood and debris in order to stop them from getting away. The executioner was too slow to stop them on his own, so the locals abandoned their desire to see the fight, and growling as they started to close in just as Chris reached the stone well.

Without looking at how deep it was, or if there was even water down below, the Agent dove over the short circular wall, dragging the screaming Sheva along as they fell down into the darkness. Honestly, he had expected a long drop like in the movies, but instead Chris landed on the edge of a steep slope after only falling for a few meters, causing him and the young woman to start rolling their way down into a passageway that was completely dark except for the tiny amount of light that came in from the top of the well.

The angry, distant yelling of the people on the surface could just barely be heard from there, but so far no one came tumbling down the well after them, and in fact… after a couple minutes of the Agent just lying there trying to catch his breath, the hostile people up there couldn't be heard at all, as if they had just given up after not being able to find their targets after a certain amount of time. Again, not that he was complaining, but this whole situation was just so damn weird, since if the executioner had been infected with a virus, then why hadn't he attacked the locals, unless… unless they were all infected as well?

"What… the hell… just happened?" Sheva asked, sitting up in the darkness. "I knew that tensions were high in Kijuju, but this… why didn't that man die when we shot him? Do you think… do you think he was mutated from some kind of virus?"

"I don't know." Chris replied, groaning as he sat up against the stone wall of the chamber they were in. "The people up there didn't move like any zombies that _I_ ever saw before, but… how the hell are we gonna get out of here?"

Even though this mission was supposed to take place over a couple hours during the day, one of the items that the Agent specifically requested for this mission was a compact flashlight for his pistol, because… just because you never know when you're gonna have to dive down an old well in order to escape an angry mob of people that might or might not be infected with something, that's why. So he clicked the small device on, with the young woman doing the same, letting them see that they were at the start of a relatively flat tunnel.

"This must have been where the city's water came in at one time." She commented, moving her light beam over the smooth stone walls and dry sandy floor. "It seems to be unused for some time, but if the water got in, then we can probably get out."

"I hope so." Chris replied, leaning on the wall to help him stand up. "The operation's going to start soon, and Irving's gonna get away if we can't get there in time."


	6. Chapter 6 The Operation Begins

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Six: The Operation Begins**

"_All personnel, this is DeChant_." The Captain's hushed voice crackled through on the radio. "_We have secured the underground route to the deal coordinates; moving in on visual confirmation of the target, wait for my signal and maintain radio silence. DeChant out_."

It wasn't long before the ancient looking tunnel came to an end, connecting at a four-way junction to a set of much more modern looking sewer tunnels made of bricks and concrete, although appearing to be just as neglected. Many of the bricks in the walls were broken or starting to crumble, revealing the dirt and clay behind it, and some of the different branching tunnels had collapsed completely, leaving Chris and Sheva with limited options for travel. So far there didn't seem to be any hostiles down in the sewers, though, which at least gave them some time to think about how to handle this whole situation.

"We can't just keep wandering around like this." The young woman said, looking around the next corner. "The tunnels that aren't collapsed are taking us in the wrong direction from the deal coordinates, so we've got to go back to the surface."

As much as the Agent was enjoying his break from all the action in the hostile city above, Chris knew that she was right. There had already been far too many delays in the preparation for this mission, and every step that they took away from the recycling center or whatever it was called, created an even bigger risk that they would miss their chance to catch Irving. Thankfully, the small GPS on his watch was still working, although with diminished signal since they were underground, so Chris was able to determine that the next manhole cover that they came to after taking the leftmost tunnel would allow them to get back on track.

Like most of the sewer access points that they had passed during the walk, some of the wrought iron rungs that were bolted into the wall were broken or missing, but not so many that Chris and Sheva couldn't climb their way up. Since she was lighter, the young woman went up first so that she would be able to get out if the rungs started to break, and then after listening at the closed cover for several seconds, she slowly started to slide it open. The Agent held his breath while she carefully peeked up at the street above, and then he sighed with relief once she motioned for him to follow as she climbed out.

It was also a good thing that Sheva went first, because the Agent's added weight was too much for most of the iron rungs, resulting in a desperate scramble to reach the surface before too many of them broke, and he almost didn't make it. Luckily, Chris had gotten his arms through just before the top rung fell out from under him, and with the young woman's help he was able to pull himself up onto the dirt street. With everything that had been happening since their arrival, the Agent thought that even more hostile locals would be patrolling the city, but this part, which was only a few blocks from public square, was deserted.

Getting turned around in a city built like this was easy, but after a quick check of the GPS, and then turning back around in the opposite direction that he was about to go in, Chris led the way now. Keeping his pistol ready, and staying low in order to use the nearby buildings' walls for cover, along with any abandoned market kiosks that they happened to pass, it was starting to look like the two of them might make it to the target area before the operation started after…

"_Hiyo ilikuwa nini_?" Sheva asked, sounding startled when she suddenly grabbed his arm. "Chris, did you just see… over there… right over there, did you see that?"

"I don't see _anything_." The Agent replied, looking over at the alleyway where she was pointing. "What did you think you saw?"

According to the young woman, out of the corner of her eye a moment ago she believed that she had seen someone start to come around the corner, only to just vanish. That in itself wasn't so unusual, given what they had just experienced in public square, but the odd part was that Sheva thought that the person she saw had long blonde hair. It wasn't currently a thing for the locals to dye their hair like that, or at least it hadn't been since 1993 when everyone had bootlegged copies of _Demolition Man_ where _Wesley Snipes_ had blond hair… and the only white guy reported to be in town was Chris.

Yeah, this whole idea seemed pretty silly and they were about to move on, when a terrified scream suddenly rang out, causing Chris and Sheva to exchange shocked glances at each other before rushing down the alley. Was it possible that the young woman had really seen someone with blonde hair… a blonde woman, specifically? And if so, what the hell was she doing in the middle of Kijuju, where white people weren't exactly on the local Christmas Card list?

Regardless of who the screaming victim was, there was no way the Agent was going to allow her to be attacked, especially after what the locals had just done to Reynard, and they were way beyond Sheva's regard for not interfering, at this point. The alley turned sharply to the right, going past a few more shops, and then going back out into another street, where there was no sign of the victim… until they both jumped when a door was thrown open from above. As odd as it was to see, there was definitely a white woman with blonde hair running out onto the second floor deck, only to scream when one of the locals ran out after her and grabbed her by the hair.

The blonde woman grabbed onto the railing of the deck to keep from being pulled away, but he was too strong for her, snarling like the others while dragging her back through the door. Running as fast as he could, Chris headed across the street and up the concrete stairs to the building's upper deck, with Sheva following behind. But by the time he was able to reach the door and kick it open, the scene before him was just like in the low end flat where they had encountered their first hostile.

All of the woman's screaming had been replaced with coughing and gagging while the man who had pulled her back into the house was kneeling on top of her, while another growling man was holding down her arms. Then, just like they had done in the flat, the two hostiles just ran off, but not before giving one last angry snarl to Chris and Sheva as they entered. Like the first victim, the blonde woman continued to cough and gag, rolling over onto her hands and knees and then retching as if she were about to vomit, before flailing her arms as she scrambled toward the door.

Running back outside before either of the agents could stop her, Sheva gasped when the blonde woman hit the deck's railing at full speed, with the young woman putting her hands over her nose and mouth while the victim tumbled over the side and vanished from sight. There was a soft thud heard as she hit the hard packed ground below, and since the other hostiles had disappeared, Chris and Sheva once again found themselves rushing outside to check on the victim.

"_All personnel, this is Dechant_." The Captain's voice crackled through the radio more urgently than last time. "_We've got positive ID on the target, I repeat we've got positive ID on the target; Alpha Team is moving in. Get ready for a runner_."

That was the signal for the two of them to get ready to quietly capture Irving as soon as he tried to escape the ambush, but as urgent as this operation was, there was no way that Chris could have left that poor woman down there to die on the ground. Sheva reminded him about the mission, and the Agent assured her as they ran down the stairs that they would get to their position as soon as they made sure that the blonde woman was all right… if she was still alive, that is.

More radio chatter was coming from Alpha Team as they moved into the deal's location, with the BSAA agents calling out their positions and responding to DeChant's orders at the same time that Chris reached the bottom of the stairs, where… where the blonde woman had not only survived the fall, but now she was slowly getting up. Rising to her hands and knees, and then twitching a little as she got all the way up to her knees, the victim just stopped moving except for a random muscle spasm here and there… was she out of it from the fall?

"_Huyu mwanamke yukoje hatahapa_?" Sheva asked, pointing toward her after stopping Chris by grabbing his arm. "Sorry, I mean… how is this woman even _here_ right now? This whole district is closed off with checkpoints, and you might not have noticed, but _wazungu_ are not exactly popular around here even when everyone's not going crazy… so… what the hell?"

"We can worry about where she came from later." The Agent replied, pulling away from her so that he could check on the victim. "We'll have her take cover until we've got Irving, and then we can extract both of…

Chris's words suddenly became an outcry of surprise and fear when the blonde woman quickly turned around and leapt onto him, snarling and growling like all the others as they fell to the ground. Before his very eyes the victim's body was starting to change; her eyes rapidly becoming bloodshot and her skin becoming pale and cracked as if something was severely dehydrating her. But how was this possible? Just a few seconds ago she was normal and seeking their help, so even if there _was_ some kind of infection spreading through Kijuju, how in the world did it happen so quickly?

_Bang_! Doing his best to keep the deranged woman from getting to him with her teeth or fingernails, the Agent struggled to push her torso away, which was a lot more difficult than it should have been, at least until a gunshot rang out. Suddenly there was a hole in the blonde woman's forehead, making her go limp while Chris pushed her off of him, and then he looked over to see Sheva standing there with her pistol still aimed. Maybe it was the direct sunlight, or the fact that both of them finally got a good look at one of the hostiles when there weren't fifty more to deal with, but this woman… she looked kind of like a zombie.

Not like the ones from back in the day with the glazed over eyes and the rotting teeth, but more like they were all simply losing their minds, instead of their bodies actually dying and then getting reanimated. This was a lot to take in, the Agent thought as he sat up to take a closer look at the body, and if it was true it also meant that the situation in Kijuju was a lot more dangerous than...

"_All units fall back_!" DeChant's voice suddenly screamed from the radio as gunshots began to be heard off in the distance. "_This is DeChant from Alpha Team, we need backup! What the fuck is that thing?! All assets converge on the target coordinates… God damn it, I said fall back… we're under attack by an unknown…_

"DeChant." Chris responded after the transmission was cut off. "DeChant, this is Redfield, what's your status? DeChant, do you read me? Damn it, they're in trouble; come on, Sheva, we gotta get there _now_!"


	7. Chapter 7 Target Coordinates

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Seven: Target Coordinates**

Running as fast as they could toward the sound of gunfire, Chris had to stop abruptly once or twice in order to duck out of sight when one of the locals passed by. The second time he and Sheva almost got spotted, having to move behind an abandoned truck when a woman carrying a basket on her head suddenly dropped it, snarling like the rest of the hostiles while looking around… but then after about thirty seconds of not seeing them, she picked the basket back up and walked away calmly as if nothing happened.

Okay, this attack on sight behavior was probably the weirdest shit that the Agent had ever seen, especially since neither she nor the other person that almost caught them were reacting to the gunfire that was coming from the old recycling center. DeChant's distressed voice crackled through the radio a couple more times, with the Captain trying to describe what was happening, but it was impossible to understand him because of the gunfire and screams… both of which were now starting to die down, allowing another strange sound to be heard right before the radio went dead.

Maybe it was just signal interference, sort of a squishing, gurgling sound… either way, the recycling center was just ahead, so after crossing one last street, the two of them rushed in through the unlocked metal door. By this time all the sounds of gunfire and screaming had stopped, leaving the recycling center as quiet as the streets had been before the ambush at Corner Pyamy, but something was also very different. Plenty of light was coming in through the windows of the building, but everything seemed so dark, and that was because of the black paint that had been sprayed all over the walls and floor… wait a second, that wasn't black paint…

"Oh God, what is that _smell_?" Sheva asked, holding her nose as they looked around. "_Ugh_, it's everywhere."

"It's coming from this slime, I think." Chris replied, not too far from holding his nose, himself. "Feels like it's burning my nose every time I take a… oh fuck… come look at this."

When the young woman joined him to see what he had found against the wall, she gasped when she saw that there was a man collapsed in the corner. His whole body was covered with the slime that was on the walls, but the strange thing was that although it was having no effect on his clothes or anything else it had been sprayed on, the black slime was bubbling up a little as it continued to corrode and burn away the man's exposed skin. Down to the muscle in some places, and bare bone in others, it was impossible to identify the victim's face, but his body armor showed that he was a member of DeChant's team.

Along with the slime, the walls were dotted with bullet holes, and there were plenty of shell casings on the floor around the dead man, along with the three others they found in similar states nearby. This meant that the four of them had gotten plenty of shots off at whatever they were shooting at, but except for the slime that was melting their skin, there was no sign of what actually attacked them. There was some more black slime dripping down from the nearby stairs, dropping down to the floor in greater quantity, so the Agent followed it up to the second floor with Sheva close behind.

"_Mwangalifu_!" The young woman exclaimed, grabbing his arm and pulling him to avoid some of it hitting his shoulder. "Don't let this stuff touch you, you saw what it did to the others!"

"Yeah… thanks." He replied, swallowing hard as he watched it slowly drip onto the stairs. "Okay, I'll watch for whatever did this… you keep me from walking into the slime."

With that decided, the walk up the stairs was resumed, but the situation on the building's second floor was the same as the first. More bullet holes in the walls, and slime everywhere, but also with lots of overturned or broken furniture as if the fighting up there had been more intense. More bodies as well, but these ones were left broken and twisted as if having faced a much more aggressive enemy, with impact marks in the walls as if they had been tossed across the room and left in unnatural positions.

No sign or the enemy, Irving, or anyone else around… including the other part of Alpha Team. The name tapes on the body armor allowed the two of them to know that DeChant himself was still unaccounted for, and based on how many bodies had been found so far some of his team was missing as well. Chris tried to call him on the radio, but there was no response, and after a quick sweep of the building's second floor, they found absolutely nothing that was useful… except for something that they almost missed completely.

"What's this?" The Agent asked, picking up a surprisingly new looking briefcase off the floor behind a broken couch. "Seems kinda out of place, doesn't it?"

He had only seen it because of the shiny metal the casing was made of, but the case itself was empty, except for some kind of container that looked like it was rigged to pop open if someone used it without knowing the trick. The unlabeled container was empty though, with no signs of what was in it, and as for the other contents spilled nearby… some papers, many of which were slime covered and unreadable… an object that was probably the container's lid… and another object that looked like some kind of computer hard drive.

"You think there's anything useful on it?" The young woman asked, continuing to look around for threats. "Maybe it belonged to Irving?"

"I don't know, maybe." Chris replied, putting the hard drive into one of his pouches. "Alpha Team's vehicle should have something that can read it, we'll uh… transmit everything on it to Headquarters for analysis."

According to what he had heard earlier on the radio, DeChant's team had used an underground route to reach the deal's location, so… this building had to have a basement then, right? Hey, maybe if they were lucky the survivors of Alpha Team managed to capture Irving and were now taking him back to their trucks for transport… well, they weren't lying up there dead with the others, so there was always hope… even though Chris had a feeling that if he and Sheva had gotten there on time they might have been killed with the others.

Back down the stairs to the first floor, and then searching around until finding another set of stairs that took them down into the basement, the Agent led the way down into a place that was much cooler than upstairs. That was the nice thing about basements, he thought while briefly remembering his childhood home, basements were cool in the summer and warm in the winter, but all the echoing from the concrete made it a lot harder for anyone to sneak around. Stopping at the bottom of the stairs and listening for a moment, Chris didn't hear anything at all except for the faint hum of electrical power.

"I don't see any slime down here." He whispered, slowly stepping down onto the concrete floor. "You think maybe DeChant managed to kill whatever attacked them?"

"I don't know." Sheva whispered back. "But it sounds like the fight is over, and we didn't see anything outside, so unless they killed each other, either DeChant or the unknown enemy is probably down here."

That was not a comfortable thought, nor was that fact that aside from a few tiny windows that didn't let in nearly enough light, the whole basement was dark. As they turned on their small flashlights, the young woman suggested trying to find a light switch, since they could hear power running from somewhere up ahead, but even after discovering it on the wall nearby, Chris didn't want to turn all the lights on until he knew which side had won the battle upstairs. The last thing they needed was to show the monster, or whatever it was, where they were.

Yes, the flashlights kind of gave them away too, but at least those could be shut off with the click of a button if they needed to hide. However, as the two of them moved through the empty basement, nothing was jumping out of the shadows, or doing much of anything at all, until the very edge of Sheva's flashlight caught a tiny bit of movement. Moving the beam onto whatever was down there with them, Chris gasped when he realized that it wasn't a monster that the light was shining on, but the bald head of Captain DeChant, himself.

"DeChant?!" The Agent loudly exclaimed while the Captain waved his arms. "He must've killed it; Sheva, hit the lights!"

Rushing over to DeChant, who was crouched against the wall, and kneeling down with him while the young woman headed back to the light switch, Chris realized that the Captain was not exactly in pristine condition. His helmet was missing, and parts of his face and hands were burned, most likely by the spray of black slime that had gotten onto his uniform and body armor, but now instead of looking happy to see him, DeChant frantically waved his arms, putting a finger to his lips in a signal to be quiet… pointing upward with his other hand just as the lights in the basement came on.

As soon as the old fluorescent lights flickered on, the Agent saw that there more members of Alpha Team down there with them… all of them, in fact, and each one left in a slime covered heap just like the ones upstairs. There was something else, too, which Chris only saw after following the direction that the Captain's finger was pointing… to something that was moving around in the rafters above another door that was probably the exit. At first, it looked like nothing at all, just some shadows that were dancing in the flickering light… but then it slowly started to squirm its way down from the ceiling.

Screaming like a frightened child when he saw this, DeChant pushed the Agent out of the way, scrambling to his feet while running blindly down another hallway, but Chris was more focused on the dark shape that was slowly coming down to the floor. This was about the time that Sheva got back from hitting the light switch, starting to ask about the Captain's condition, before her words turned into a startled gasp when she saw the thing, but oddly enough it seemed to ignore her completely. Instead, the dark shape moved right toward the nearest Alpha Team body, where it started to slither over the corpse like some kind of snake.

What the hell _was_ this thing?


	8. Chapter 8 Unknown Contact

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Eight: Unknown Contact**

With the flickering lights on all throughout the basement of the old recycling center, Chris was able to get a good look at the strange dark mass that was coming down from the ceiling, watching as it went right for the nearest corpse lying on the floor. Once it reached the BSAA agent's body, the whole thing began to spread out, allowing him to see that it wasn't a single dark mass at all, but a collection of black snakelike tendrils that appeared to be coated with the same foul smelling substance that was on the walls and bodies upstairs.

Weaving their way underneath the body armor and through the clothes, the black tendrils quickly engulfed the entire body, going into and coming back out of the eyes and mouth just before the whole corpse vanished into the squirming mass. The dead man's clothes, armor, and even weapons were left behind, covered in that black slime as they fell out of the squirming mass of tendrils, but then something started to happen with the creature itself. Up until now the whole interweaved mass had resembled a large snake, but after consuming the body of the BSAA agent, it was like the whole thing had become supercharged.

With a loud squishing sound as dozens of new tendrils were produced, all of the new growth began to interweave itself around each other in a different direction as an offshoot from the main body, which actually resembled maybe… an appendage, like an arm. Yeah, that was it, it was like this thing was using the corpse somehow to stimulate its own growth, but then Chris realized how bad this was when the creature not only produced another arm-like appendage for itself, but a pair of legs as well… allowing the whole thing to slowly stand up as it turned toward him.

"Oh shit." He said, taking a step back as the monster took a step forward. "Shoot it!"

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_ Aiming their pistols and pulling the trigger, Chris and Sheva put several bullets into the squirming mass, with each hit causing a few of the tendrils to separate from the main body, quickly shriveling up into nothing when they hit the floor. However, more tendrils just grew back to take their place, and now the monster was walking toward them, forcing the two of them to fall back. Both of them fired a few more shots as they backed down the corridor that DeChant used to escape, but even after putting four bullets into one of its legs, the creature just didn't seem to be taking any damage.

No matter how many tendrils were broken off, there were always more to take their place, and the weirdest part was that except for the squishing noise and the sound of its footsteps, the monster itself didn't make any noise at all. No growling, no roaring, nothing, just… just that awful squishing sound as it continued to chase them around the next corner, but the creature wasn't graceful at all; it kept having to lean on the wall to keep from falling over, especially after rounding the corner as if it wasn't used to walking upright.

"Chris, we can't win like this." Sheva urged as the monster steadied itself around the corner. "Come on, we've got to get out of here!"

The young woman pulled on his arm, causing the Agent to follow her as the two of them ran the other way down the corridor, but surprisingly the monster didn't speed up to chase them. It still pursued, but leaning heavily against the wall to steady itself as if that awkward walk was its top speed; not that Chris complained, since it gave the two of them a big head start, and after passing through an open doorway, he slammed it shut and locked the dead bolt into place. The door was metal, so hopefully it would hold up long enough for them to escape… except for the fact that there was no other door.

Like the rest of the basement, there were pipes and conduits running along the walls, but the ceiling was higher, and the room itself was a lot longer than even the main section at the bottom of the stairs, looking like a huge rectangle. There were small windows along the wall, but they were too tiny for someone to fit through, even if Chris and Sheva had a way to get up as high as they were… did that mean they were trapped? No, couldn't be, since DeChant came this way when the monster attacked, but… where did he go?

All around the room there were huge piles of trash that looked like the workers there had begun sorting into piles for disposal, but that must have been a long time ago, since the piles were rotting and covered with dust. Other than that the room's predominant feature was the old blast furnace. The thing looked like a tunnel it was so big, made of concrete and with holes along the top for dropping trash inside, while… hey, the pilot lights were still on down inside the furnace as if the thing were ready to be put into operation at a moment's…

_Wham_! Suddenly the door behind them was broken free of its hinges, and would have hit Sheva if the young woman hadn't dropped down to the floor as it flew past, but now the monster was free to enter the room, all of its slimy tendrils dripping the black goo onto the floor as it continued pursuing them. _Bang! Bang!_ Both the Agent and Sheva fired a couple more shots, causing more of the creature's tendrils to fall off, but other than that the thing was just walking right through their bullets like it didn't even notice them. The monster was acting a lot more aggressive now, crawling on all fours instead of trying to walk upright, allowing it to move a lot faster as it chased them around one of the piles of trash.

Since bullets weren't working, and the monster wasn't slowing down, Chris holstered his pistol and then picked up the largest piece of trash he could see, before tossing it at the creature. It was an old bucket that had some dry concrete stuck in the bottom, giving it enough weight to fly, and as soon as the object made contact, the monster's tendrils swarmed over it, dragging it into the interior. A second later the object was spat out like the other BSAA agent's armor, but this did give him an idea.

"Sheva, try to distract it for a second!" The Agent exclaimed, looking around for what he needed. "Lead it over that way, just give me a few seconds!"

At first the young woman looked at him like he was crazy, but then she saw that he was pointing at one of the gas canisters that were hooked up to the blast furnace, before nodding in agreement. Now Chris had to hurry, because the monster went after her as soon as she started shooting again, giving him the time he needed to reach the first of the canisters… which was empty. Unlike in modern systems, there was no giant chemical source that supplied fuel to the furnace, so instead each side of the concrete tunnel was supplied by about eight small tanks that were attached with a hose. The hose was easy enough to detach, but finding one that still had fuel inside it was the kicker.

Finally the third one had something in the tank, even though it was only about a third full judging by the weight, but there was no time to be picky since Sheva was calling for help. The young woman was so small that she was able to stay ahead of the creature when it tried to grab her, ducking under its swinging arm and then circling around the next pile of trash, which actually gave Chris the perfect opening to use the canister. Yelling for her to get down, the Agent tossed the chemical tank right at the monster, reaching for his pistol as soon as it left his hands, and them aiming at the spot where the black tendrils were quickly absorbing the metal object into the main body.

_Bang-BOOM!_ There was a tiny spark when his bullet struck the metal casing just as it was vanishing into the monster's main body, and then there was a small explosion of flame that burst out of the creature's center. The explosion itself seemed to cut the monster in half, causing both halves to collapse to the floor, with the majority of the flames that followed spreading across the lower section. The back legs flopped and kicked around as the fire ignited the black slime, rapidly making the interweaved tendrils fall to the floor where they shriveled up into nothing, but the monster's top half was still in action, and… starting to regenerate.

More black tendrils were forming at the site of the explosion, but the process of its recovery was a lot slower than it had been before, as was its movement speed in general. Given enough time, the monster could have probably regenerated to full strength, but Chris was _not_ going to let that happen, so he was turning around to search for another canister, when a new sound reached his ears… the sound of automatic gunfire coming from… above? _Ratta-tatta-ratta-tatta!_ Yes, the gunfire was coming from up on top of the concrete blast furnace, and the shooter was…

"DeChant!" The Agent exclaimed when he saw the Captain there. "Where did… never mind, keep it off us so we can…

_BOOM_! His words were interrupted when DeChant, who had come out of seemingly nowhere, took a grenade off his belt and tossed it. The Captain's aim was off, causing the explosive to go off in the middle of a trash pile, scattering useless debris all over the place, but these attacks appeared to be stimulating the creature somehow. It was still regenerating at the same rate, but its movement speed was greatly accelerated as if responding to a threat, allowing the monster to do an awkward leap to where its body crashed into the side of the furnace.

The Captain was in the middle of reloading when the leap happened, and it looked like he was okay when the monster missed its mark, but then one of its remaining arms swung at him, and there was no getting away. The force of the blow knocked DeChant backwards, but now those black tendrils were swarming over his body while the Captain tried to crawl away, and out of reflex Chris tried to grab his hand to help him. The Agent was able to grab DeChant's hand, but instead of helping him get away, he was lifted up into the air when the monster pulled the Captain in for absorption.

DeChant's screams were cut off when he was dragged face first into the squirming mass of black tendrils, but the Agent let go before he would have been forced to join him, resulting in him falling toward the top of the blast furnace… but passing through one of the holes so that he ended up inside. Landing hard on the concrete floor and coughing as he rolled over, Chris gasped while scrambling to get out of the way just before the monster's arm would have caught him. Crawling and rolling to get out of the way, the creature squished itself down enough to be able to follow him into the tunnel, and… and the thing's rear legs had grown back.

Spitting out DeChant's clothes and body armor as it crawled into the furnace, it was like feeding on the Captain had supercharged the monster just like when it overtook that first corpse in the other room, and now it was reaching for him with one of those horrible arms. The Agent tried to jump up to one of the holes, and he could reach it, but there just wasn't enough time to climb out before the thing reached for him again. However, the arm got too close to one of the pilot lights, causing it to pull back for a second… giving him a really stupid idea.

"Sheva, open the fuel tanks!" He called as loudly as he could, backing off again to avoid the arms. "The ones closest to where we came in, hurry!"

"What?!" The young woman's voice yelled back. "But you'll be burned alive!"

That was possible, but it was better than what happened to DeChant, so the Agent repeated what he wanted her to do, and then ran as far to the back of the furnace as he could, hoping that he could somehow get out of this alive.


	9. Chapter 9 Mission Update

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Nine: Mission Update**

"Chris, most of these are empty!" Sheva's voice called from outside the furnace. "There's no fuel in the canisters!"

_Bang! Bang!_ Even though the Agent knew that his bullets were doing next to nothing to the creature that was pursuing him through the furnace of the old recycling center, there wasn't anything else he could do to fight it off, and besides every time the monster started to get more aggressive, one of its limbs would get too close to the burning pilot lights along the sides of the ceiling. Each time this happened, the monster was forced to pull back for a couple seconds until its tendrils stopped burning, but this was all that was keeping it from getting him.

Suddenly one of the pilot lights ignited into a stream of yellow flame that spread out like a cone into the furnace, but it was so far behind the monster that only the very back of its leg appendages were affected. It flopped around while dozens of its black tendrils were destroyed, and its speed in general was slowed just a little, but it was still coming, and the length of the furnace wasn't going to last forever. So Chris yelled for Sheva to keep turning the gas lines on as quickly as she could, with the next yellow flash coming just as the monster was about to grab him.

Crying out in surprise when the cone of flame spread out right between them, the Agent threw himself backwards to keep from getting burned alive, even though the left side of his face was instantly turned a painful shade of red from the heat, and the hairs on the exposed parts of his arms were instantly burned off. He landed on the floor and scooted away as quickly as he could, but thankfully the stream of fire was keeping the monster from chasing him after burning off the front part of its arm appendages. The thing was trapped for now, but safe from the fire burning on both sides… and the fuel in those canisters wasn't going to last forever.

"Sheva, get a grenade!" Chris yelled, getting to his feet. "Grab one of DeChant's grenades, and toss it in here right between the two lines you just turned on! Hurry!"

He could hear the young woman saying something about American insanity as she was heard moving away from the tunnel, but there was no argument this time, so the Agent got ready to climb out of… no, if he left now the creature would get out to come after him… aw crap, he had to stay in the tunnel until it was over. With each passing second there was danger of the fuel running out, so Chris hoped that Sheva would hurry… and also that the gloves she was wearing would allow her to pick up the grenades that was undoubtedly covered with that black slime.

"Chris, I've got it!" She called out a few seconds later. "Get out of the way, I'm throwing it _now_!"

The monster kept testing the flame as if making sure that it was still a threat, with its arms trying to flatten themselves out in different ways to get around the hot cone, at least until a small object fell into the intake hole that was above the creature. Missing its squirming body and landing on the floor next to one of its legs, the whole tunnel shook when the explosive went off, shredding the monster's leg with its shrapnel, and causing it to stumble forward right into the stream of fire.

Now the creature was really flopping around, flailing its arms and legs as the fire spread out across its whole body, burning off the black tendrils even faster than it could replace them. At the same time Chris used the opportunity to escape from the furnace, jumping up and grabbing the edge of another intake hole and slowly pulling himself up onto the exterior of the tunnel just in case the creature attacked again. Once on top of the furnace, the Agent jumped off onto a large pile of garbage, crawling his way out and scrambling to his feet so that he could get away when the attack came… except it didn't.

The two of them watched the yellow glow from inside the tunnel fade away as the fuel in the canisters went out, but then the whole recycling center fell silent except for the faint hiss of the pilot lights. Still, the two of them remained frozen in place for more than a minute, waiting to make sure that the monster was really dead, and then breathing out a sigh of relief… before Sheva suddenly started laughing.

"Hey, are you all right?" Chris asked, turning toward her. "What's uh… what's so funny?"

"At the moment, _you_ are." The young woman replied, reaching up and taking the rotten banana peel off the top of his head. "Ever since you jumped off the furnace, this has just been sitting on the center of your head like… on your head like… it was a little hat."

Now Sheva was laughing so hard that she had to lean forward, coughing a little as she put her hands on her knees, and the Agent had to admit that the thought of him wearing an old rotten, mostly black banana peel like a hat was actually pretty funny. What wasn't funny, though, was what that monster had done to Alpha Team… this whole mission had gone to shit in the worst possible way, and right now the whole mess had to be reported to Headquarters… Alpha Team's trucks were bound to have a long range radio or a satellite phone, or something.

So after brushing off the last of the garbage from his clothes, and hearing a few more chuckles from his partner, the two of them left the furnace, heading back to the area where they had first encountered the thing, and going through the other door. There were no more bodies in this corridor, as if the last of the team had been killed while trying to escape back into the basement, but there were also no other obstacles waiting for them as they rounded another corner a short time later, leading to another set of stairs where light was coming from the top.

Taking their time heading up toward the light source in case any more of the locals were waiting for them, Chris was happy to discover that the underground route that DeChant had mentioned before on the radio led up into a large warehouse instead of the open city. The rollup door at the far end was closed, and the windows were too high up for anyone walking by to spot them, and the best news of all… Alpha Team's Humvees were all parked inside in preparation for a quick exit with the target… yeah, the target… what had happened to Irving?

"All clear over here." He said after checking around the trucks for threats. "You good, Sheva?"

"Nothing on my side." She replied after checking around the hidden corners of the building. "I think we're good for now."

All right, so the warehouse was free of threats for now, so Chris had Sheva continue to watch the way they came in while he started to search through the Humvees, with the first thing he found being more ammo for their pistols. This was good, since both of them were down to their last few bullets, but now that the whole damn city of Kijuju knew that they were there, there was no need to limit what they carried in order to avoid drawing attention… that was a stupid plan anyway, trying to sneak a _white guy_ into a city in _Africa_ undetected.

Aside from the extra bullets, there were some other weapons in the trucks as well, and even though they weren't the most effective things available, the knives found on one of the back seats would probably help if there was any more close contact with the locals. Personally, he hoped there wasn't, but the box of extra grenades the Agent found underneath the seat would hopefully make things a little easier… even if they were just as dangerous to the one throwing them as they were to the enemy.

No other rifles or anything remained inside of the trucks, since Alpha Team had probably been carrying all of those with them, so the two of them divided up what could be used, and then he started looking for long range communications. Chris expected to find a large radio mounted inside one of the Humvees, but instead there was just a small Velcro pouch that contained one of those compact satellite phones with a fold down antenna. Sometimes this kind of communication was preferred, since a mission could take them hundreds if not thousands of miles from base, and the phone's speed dial function had Alpha Team's direct line to Headquarters as the first number.

"No, this is Chris Redfield." He said when the person who answered expected DeChant. "Alpha Team is down, and Irving got away."

Like a good Agent, he gave the best report he could, which basically boiled down to a flowery and professional way of saying that the whole mission had gone to shit in the worst possible way. Not only had DeChant and his team been wiped out by some new kind of BOW that Irving probably used as a trap, but the locals were hostile to the point where their behavior sort of resembled those _Ganados_ that were described in Leon Kennedy's report back when there was that whole thing with Ashley Graham getting kidnapped.

"_Sounds like you two should be congratulated just for surviving_." Their contact's voice replied loudly. "_This new data will be sent up, but for now the mission stands; Irving's capture is a top priority, and satellite images show only a single vehicle leaving from your coordinates in the last half hour. It is believed that the target is heading toward the mines beyond the train station_."

"_Kituo cha gari moshi_?!" Sheva exclaimed when she heard this. "But that's all the way… damn it, the whole _city_ is hostile, and we're the only ones left; how are we supposed to…

Their contact interrupted the young woman's words, repeating simply that the mission stands, but adding that Delta Team was being deployed to assist them with Irving's capture. However, since the target had already escaped once, it was impossible for the two of them to wait for backup to arrive before resuming pursuit. After all, what reason did Irving have to stick around once the deal was completed? This meant that Chris and Sheva would have to continue after him on their own, with Delta Team hopefully being able to catch up with them before the next disaster happened.

With that, the conversation was over, leaving the two of them just standing there with the challenge of making their way across the district to the train station, which according to the young woman, was pretty far away. However, that didn't mean they had to travel on foot, since all of Alpha Team's trucks were sitting right there next to them… God, imagine trying to _walk_ across an entire hostile district while there were vehicles available… ridiculous, right?

"All right, I'll pull the door open while you start the truck." The Agent said, turning toward the large rollup gate. "Just because we're expendable, doesn't mean we have to be stupid, right?"


	10. Chapter 10 The Bridge

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Ten: The Bridge**

There was no way to keep the locals from noticing a Humvee that was driving down the streets of Kijuju, especially when the BSAA emblem was clearly marked on the side of the vehicle, but Chris still tried to keep a low profile anyway. After pulling up the rollup door so that Sheva could drive the truck out of the warehouse, the Agent let it back down as quietly as possible, before getting in on the passenger side. The door opened into a small back alley, so there were no people around to spot them as the Humvee slowly started moving, although both of them still kept a sharp lookout.

Even though Chris was used to doing all the driving, the young woman knew the city better, so he just focused on watching out for threats, the first of which came as soon as they turned out of the alley and back onto a larger street. There were a couple people standing a short distance away the opposite direction that the truck was going, and the Agent was about to grab his pistol when they turned toward it with angry looks on their faces… only to stop and go about their day once the Humvee got a little farther from where they were.

After the incident that happened in Spain back in 2004, Chris had read the entire report that was filed by Leon Kennedy, detailing everything he had learned about the ancient parasite known as _Las Plagas_, specifically how it controlled its hosts. Just like in the report, the people of Kijuju seemed to be going about their normal routine until an outside threat was detected, and then they became extremely hostile until the threat was either neutralized or beyond whatever the parasite's detection range was.

However, there was one large difference between the Spain report and now, and that was the fact that some of the locals had been calling for help or actively trying to escape less than a minute before becoming hostile… while Leon had clearly stated that from the time of implantation it could take as long as a week for a host to be taken over. This had to be something else, then, but it was definitely an infection of some kind, seeing how much punishment that executioner guy had taken without dying.

"It's been a long time since I've been in this part of the city." Sheva said, turning the truck left onto another road. "But if we go across the bridge and pass through the old market square, then the train station should be just right after."

"Good, the sooner we get there, the better." Chris replied. "It's pretty safe to say that we've worn out our welcome, and we definitely don't want to be anywhere near here once the sun goes down."

Yeah, the Agent thought as a large truss bridge with faded red colored side beams came into view, no matter how bad situations like this were, they always seemed to get worse at night… not that he was feeling too good about how much the Humvee shook around as the front wheels moved onto the bridge. Just wide enough to accommodate the truck with only a couple feet to spare on each side, Chris hoped that the old rusting structure was strong enough to hold as they crossed over a canal that was filled with muddy water and random pieces of garbage.

"Jeez, wouldn't wanna fall in _there_." He commented, looking down as an animal carcass floated by. "Not sure even if my _Daylight_ vaccine would protect me from that stuff down there."

"Chris, you have to remember that not all countries are as fortunate as America." The young woman replied as they neared the halfway point. "The things that are normal for you in the States are considered unattainable luxuries in places like Kijuju, and what you see as an awful slum is just the way of life the people here are stuck with."

He understood what she was saying, but the Agent didn't buy a word of that _being stuck with_ crap, especially since most of the poor countries in the world had _sports rivalries_ for longer than the US was even around. Chris had been in some of the worst parts of the world as far as poverty goes, and it was always the same setup; most of the people were dirt poor and living in squalor while a small majority hoarded most of the wealth in such a way where they were keeping the common man down. If the common people worked together to improve things and the rich stopped being so selfish, then every country in the world could be…

"_Kutomba_!" Sheva suddenly yelled, interrupting his thoughts. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! Chris, it's coming right for us"

Stopping the Humvee and switching into reverse, in reaction to the truck that suddenly appeared at the other end of the bridge, the young woman breathed heavily as she tried to back up, only to get one of the back tires stuck against one of the bridge's side supports. Up ahead the truck was flying toward them, making the bridge shake back and forth every time the less than proficient driver bumped into the sides in an effort to keep going straight and… and what, ram them off the bridge?

Sheva was panicked, trying to open the driver door and get out, but unable to since the side of the Humvee was right against one of the bridge's side supports, but then she stopped everything when Chris told her to drive toward the speeding truck. The young woman must have thought he lost his mind, again trying to reverse their way off the bridge, but getting nowhere while the approaching truck rapidly closed in, making the bridge shake even more violently back and forth as it got closer and closer.

"Sheva, you need to trust me!" The Agent quickly exclaimed. "We're in a military grade Humvee, and he's in an old _Isuzu_ from the 80's… floor it!"

With no time to spare, the young woman put the Humvee into drive, stomping on the gas and starting forward just as the speeding truck reached them. There was a loud _CRASH_ when the two vehicles collided, with Chris and Sheva being roughly bounced around in their seats, but instead of an explosion or finding themselves getting forced backwards, the Isuzu truck was flung upward as its whole undercarriage was destroyed. Tires and engine parts went one way while the main body of the truck went another, slamming so hard into the bridge's side supports that it broke right through them… sending both the truck and driver vanishing into the canal with a loud _splash_.

As for the Humvee, the hood and front end were heavily dented, along with a few cracks in the windshield, but that was really about it… the vehicle was both intact and operational, but more importantly the two BSAA agents inside were still alive. Sheva was still visibly shaken, but getting her breath under control after letting out a loud a sigh of relief, and about a minute after that the young woman was able to start driving again. Moving much slower this time, it actually took a couple minutes to reach the other side of the bridge, which was where Chris let out his own sigh of relief, and now everything was starting to calm down as Sheva turned back onto the road to…

_Smash-fwoosh_! It took the Agent a second to realize what just happened as a glass soda bottle shattered across the hood, but then he gasped when the chemical inside ignited into a small blaze, making him realize that they had just been hit by a _Molotov Cocktail_. Now more objects were striking the exterior of the Humvee as the locals were starting to show themselves; coming out of hiding and filling the side of the street opposite the canal so that they could throw just about anything they could get their hands on. Most of it was ineffective junk that just bounced off, but others were throwing rocks that enlarged the cracks in the windshield, so Sheva stepped on the gas to get them out of there.

Just like before, the hostiles stopped attacking once the vehicle got a certain distance away, only to be replaced by random others that happened to notice the truck passing by from their balconies or just while walking down the street. These ones also tried to throw objects, but were often too late by the time the two agents drove past, allowing them to reach the market square relatively easily. Now the young woman had to weave the Humvee around the different kiosks and stalls where the locals were trying to sell their wares before turning aggressive when approached.

"My God, how far has this spread?" Sheva asked, turning her head to look back at one of the local woman throwing a butcher knife at them. "Is the whole _city_ infected?"

"We'll have to ask Irving when we catch him." The Agent replied, turning toward the front. "Hopefully there'll still be at least a few people left to _HOLY SHIT_!"

Sheva gasped, slamming on the brakes and swerving the truck to the side as the large figure came into view, but it was too late. She managed to stop the vehicle from hitting him directly, but as they went past, the large figure swung a large metal weapon in a downward angle, causing a loud _pop_ when the truck's front passenger side tire completely blew out. _Flop-flop-flop-flop_, since the Humvee was moving at high speeds for the area, the sudden loss of the tire caused them to spin out of control, slamming through a couple kiosks and sending a few locals flying before coming to a sudden stop against the corner of a concrete building.

The truck still worked, but the remaining wheels were stuck in some debris, meaning that it wasn't going anywhere. Regardless of the Humvee's status, the locals were still out there, so Chris and Sheva scrambled to get out, forcing the doors open, and then climbing out into the street just in time to see the locals gathering around in such a way that the way they came in was blocked. Instead of attacking, though, the snarling people began to slowly clap their hands in a rhythmic fashion, before clearing a path so that the large, and very familiar looking figure who disabled their vehicle could slowly walk toward them… with the big, handmade axe dragging behind on the ground.

"Oh no." The Agent said, stepping back as the hooded executioner approached. "You have _got_ to be shitting me."


	11. Chapter 11 Delta Team

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Eleven: Delta Team**

The crowd in the market square wasn't as big as the one when Chris and Sheva were going to be executed, but there were still enough to block the whole street back the way they came. However, the biggest threat right now was the hooded executioner, who apparently had been trying to track them down ever since the narrow escape down the well, and now aimed to finish what he started with Reynard. Instead of engaging him right away, though, the two BSAA agents backed off, trying to keep some distance between them until an opening could be found to get away.

At least none of the other locals were attacking so far, seeming content to just keep clapping their hands and following slowly while the executioner dragged his axe toward them… damn it, why did the truck have to be disabled? _Bang! Bang!_ There were no visible alleyways to duck down throughout the market square, and many of the nearby buildings were occupied by even more of the snarling locals, so Chris fired two bullets into the large figure's leg in an effort to slow him down. Each hit made the executioner twitch a little, but that was about it, so they just continued to back away through the market square.

"Chris, we have to do something." Sheva said as they moved around another empty kiosk. "Eventually, they will get tired of this and surround us."

"I know, I know." He replied, trying to come up with a plan. "All right, I'm gonna try something, so just… get ready to run."

Reaching into one of his pouches and taking out one of the grenades he had gotten from Alpha Team's supplies, the Agent pulled the pin, and rolled the explosive underneath the kiosk that it came out next to the executioner's leg before going off. _BOOM_! The hooded figure grunted as shrapnel filled smoke spread out in all directions, collapsing the wooden kiosk, and making the executioner stumble sideways where he had to lean on an abandoned car for a moment… before getting up and continuing the slow chase like nothing had happened.

Yelling for Sheva to run, Chris was just about to start moving himself, when the large figure made a surprising move by spinning around and throwing his axe at them. Acting out of reflex, the Agent tackled Sheva to the ground just in time to stop the swirling weapon from hitting them; covering her protectively with his body while the axe passed overhead, where it sunk deeply into a nearby electrical pole. _Crack-pop-crack_, the wood of the pole was already rotting, and the hit plus the weight of the fuse panel at the top caused the whole thing to come crashing down.

_CRASH_! Again moving on top of young woman to try and protect her, Chris closed his eyes as the shadow loomed over them… only to have the pole miss them completely, with the fuse panel landing right on top of the executioner. Sparks flew as the large figure was pinned down on his back, with his arms and legs twitching violently while the current traveled up and down his body for several seconds until his smoldering body was still. Chris couldn't help but laugh a little when he realized what happened, only to stop when he saw that the no longer clapping locals were not happy with how things ended.

"Run, Sheva!" The Agent exclaimed, pulling her to her feet. "Run!"

Taking another grenade from his belt and pulling the pin just as they started to run from the crowd, Chris tossed the explosive over his shoulder, before hearing the screams of several locals that were sent flying by the blast a few seconds later. It might have bought them a couple seconds, but there were plenty more hostiles ready to take their place as the chase really began. Since Sheva was so small, she was able to run a lot faster than the Agent was, so Chris was forced to fire a few shots with his pistol in order to stay ahead of the hoard.

While there weren't enough bullets in his weapon to thin out their numbers, each time one of the locals was hit they would slow down, allowing them to be trampled by the others, which in turn caused a lot of them to fall over. That was the nice thing about how narrow the streets were in Kijuju City, since there was no way to avoid the bullets… but also no way to escape from the screaming hoard even after passing the last few abandoned kiosks of the market square. Instead of alleys off to the side, there was a sharp incline as the street went up a long hill, meaning that the Agent was having even more trouble keeping up with the young woman.

The snarling locals didn't seem to be getting tired at all once they got to the hill, with some even throwing glass bottles and pieces of scrap metal in an effort to keep them from getting away. _Bang! Bang!_ Now it was Sheva who was turning around and shooting, tripping up some of the hostiles and giving Chris the extra time he needed to get up the rest of the hill, which was a lot since he was breathing hard and coughing, bending forward and putting his hands on his knees as soon as he got there.

"No time to rest!" The young woman exclaimed, firing a couple more shots while pulling his arm. "Come on, we have to keep moving!"

That was easy for her to say, since Sheva looked like she ran marathons for a living, but at least the street flattened out from that point on, and… and there was no cover at all. Where the street had been narrow and restricting just a short distance before, now the whole thing opened up into a wide field that looked like it was for eighteen wheelers to turn around in, but there was nothing in range for the two of them to hide behind as the first members of the hoard reached the top of the hill. There were more buildings, but they were at the other end of the field, so once again the two of them got their pistols ready.

Now it seemed like all of the locals were carrying melee weapons of some kind; pieces of wood or metal scrap, rocks, and some even had knives that they were holding up as they ran as if ready to start stabbing as soon as they came in range. _Bang! Bang!_ Shooting the nearest ones as they approached, those ones fell down, but the rest were starting to spread out like they were trying to surround the two agents… and there were only a few bullets left in each of their clips, with no time to reload.

_Boom_! One of the locals was just about to swing a piece of wood at Chris's head, when the snarling man's head partially exploded just as a louder gunshot rang out. At first the locals were just as confused as the two agents were, at least until the sound of automatic gunfire started echoing throughout the field while several men in body armor similar to Alpha Team's started to approach from both sides. The enraged locals turned to try and throw their rocks and other objects at the newcomers, but they weren't fast enough to keep from getting hit by the hail of bullets that was now flying across the field.

At first the hoard kept coming, but then everyone stopped even as more of their own people fell, before turning and leaving as if they had received some kind of special mass instruction to retreat. Not wanting to use up any more of their bullets, the advancing BSAA agents ceased fire, following a hand signal from their leader to regroup in the center of the field, where… where Chris could honestly say that he had never been happier to see anyone in all his life. He tried to say thanks and introduce himself, but the Agent was still trying to catch his breath and unable to say much of anything.

"It's all right, catch your breath, brother." The leader laughed while smacking him on the back. "I'm Captain Stone of Delta Team… _unaona wanaume? Nilikuambia itakuwa rahisi kupata mzungu hapa_."

"Thanks, Josh." Sheva replied, breathing hard as the men laughed at whatever was just said. "Looks like you really… saved the day."

Chris figured that he shouldn't have been surprised that the two of them knew each other, since they were in the save branch of the BSAA, but once everyone moved into one of the nearest buildings at the other end of the field, he learned that the Captain had been Sheva's training officer as well. If that was the case, then Josh was one hell of a teacher, because the young woman was a fine agent, and he didn't hesitate in telling the Captain about every time that she had saved his life since the mission started.

Now that the two of them had a few minutes to catch their breath, Chris was feeling a lot better, but he knew that the operation had to be finished quickly, since the sun was already starting to go down. Thankfully, this building that Delta Team was using as base just happened to be the management center of the train station where they were headed, and beyond that… the mines where Irving was supposedly waiting for this deal of his to go down. Of course, Josh believed that the whole transaction was abandoned completely because of Alpha Team's ambush, and that the target was simply trying to get away.

"Well, snakes like him _do_ always think of themselves first." Chris said, getting out of the chair and stretching for a minute. "So what's the plan? Are we gonna storm the new site like Alpha Team did, because I don't think Irving is gonna carry around more than one of those things."

"Actually no, the two of you are to proceed as you have done." The Captain replied, much to the Agent's disappointment. "Irving will likely be watching for another large force, so your chances of success are better if you sneak in and grab him… if we had done this from the start, then perhaps DeChant would still be alive."

Delta Team wasn't pulling out, however. Instead, they were operating on the last Intel the two of them sent, with orders to investigate the local population in order to determine if there really was a large scale outbreak happening in Kijuju City. If so, then the whole district had to be quarantined immediately, and the first step of that was to find out what they were dealing with. All Chris could tell them was to try and stay at least a hundred meters from everyone around, because that was his best guess as to their attack radius, and with that the Captain ordered his men to move out.

"The sun's going to be down in a matter of hours." Sheva said, looking out the window. "We need to hurry."

There was no argument from the Agent about this, so he reloaded his pistol, and followed her out the door that led to the tracks of the train station.


	12. Chapter 12 The Old Mine

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Twelve: The Old Mine**

It didn't take long for bursts of random gunfire to start coming from back the way they came, meaning that Delta Team must have engaged the locals again, but Chris and Sheva couldn't go back to help them. For all they knew, this was their last chance to catch Irving before he vanished like any other criminal on the run, and besides… Captain Stone had like a dozen armed men with him, while the Agent and the young woman were on their own. So they stepped down from the concrete platform and began to cautiously cross over the multiple railroad tracks, all the while keeping a lookout for any of the locals that might have wandered this far out.

Like many other parts of Kijuju City, the train station had been badly neglected, with small grassy plants growing up through the gravel that was all over the partially rusted rail lines, and there were a few storage cars around, but their metal exteriors were rusting apart as badly as the tracks they were sitting on. So far nothing was jumping out to get them, unlike every square inch of the city they had just gone through, and it was nice to not have anything there to impede their progress, since there were only a few hours left before sunset.

"The old entrance to the mines should be just beyond there." Sheva said, pointing toward a partially collapsed chain link fence. "There is another way, but we would have to go all the way back around, and through a whole different district."

"No time for anything like that." Chris replied, looking underneath a car as they passed by. "We'll make it work, whatever it is."

Reaching the old fence a few meters after crossing the last railroad line, there was no need for the two BSAA agents to look for a gate, since most of it had fallen down enough to step over, and then after a short flat field that was mostly gravel and shrubs, the landscape was suddenly filled with a tall rocky hill that was too steep and wide to go over or around. There was a sign up ahead, but even though the Agent couldn't read it, clearly this was the old entrance to the mines that Sheva had mentioned… but all that was up ahead was a single, very dark looking entrance to a cave.

There were no power lines running inside, meaning that there had probably never been any electric lights in there, being that it was the old entrance, and for a moment Chris thought that all the backtracking the young woman mentioned didn't seem so bad. Damn it, he thought while looking back up at the sun, there just wasn't any time, so hopefully the small flashlights on their pistols would be enough to navigate what was hopefully a simple passageway to the more modern sections of the mine.

An old cart track could be seen on the ground in the center of the tunnel as they stepped inside, but it took almost a minute for their eyes to adjust enough to see in the darkness, even with the small flashlights on. Yeah, this place was _dark_, and the interior of the small mountain was so dull that the only surface reflecting any light at all was the cart track, making it even harder for them to see. That was when Chris suggested that while he kept his light beam straight ahead, the young woman would point hers straight up so that the low ceiling bounced the light all around them even without being reflective.

"Good idea, Chris." Sheva said, now able to see about ten feet around them in all directions. "Works kind of like a torch with fire… is this the kind of thing they teach you in the North American branch?"

"Actually, I learned this trick on my first night at the RPD in Raccoon City." He explained as they started walking down the tunnel. "We were chasing a wanted killer, and he ran down into the subway tunnels to hide in the dark, so Tobias Liquid told us all to point our flashlights upward, and…

Suddenly the young woman cut him off, spitting on the ground, and telling Chris with a scowl that she _never_ wanted to hear _that name_ being mentioned around her again. The Agent was shocked by this, since Sheva's demeanor had never been this angry, even while the locals were trying to kill them, but then she put her hand over her mouth and quickly apologized for the outburst. She asked him to forgive her for being so unprofessional, and assured him that it wasn't like her to speak out like that… so Chris chose to just move on instead of asking why Tobias's name upset her so much.

Of course, with _that guy's_ track record, he was probably on more hit lists than _Osama Bin Laden_, but right now there were more important things to worry about. So the Agent told her to forget about it, and the two of them started up the shallow incline that made up the first length of the tunnel. However, it wasn't long before a discovery was made that ended the uneventful part of their mission… that of a human body lying on the floor of the tunnel, or at least… part of a body. It must have been there for a while, because the flesh was rotted to the point of almost being gone, but the strange part was that the entire lower half was missing.

Stopping there and listening for any possible threats, nothing greeted them aside from the echoes of their own breathing and footsteps, and now the tunnel was starting to branch off in different directions. Soon there were half a dozen choices of different tunnels that they could take, each as dark and foreboding as the rest, but the cart track was only installed in this one, so for now it seemed best to just keep following it… until the next body was found. This one was not as rotted as the first, but its head and left arm were missing… but the one they found after that was almost fresh judging by the smell, but… everything above its stomach appeared to have been ripped off.

"Chris, what the hell _is_ all this?" Sheva whispered, continually looking back and forth in the darkness. "Why would all these bodies just be scattered around here like this?"

"I don't know." The Agent replied, shining his light beam as far ahead as it would go. "In the Kennedy Report, he mentioned that the Ganados killed everyone immune to infection, and had a dumping ground for them… maybe this is something similar?"

It wasn't like the young woman could confirm his hypotheses, since neither one of them had been in Spain during the crisis back in 2004, but whatever had happened in those old caves, it was probably a good idea to get out as soon as possible. Oh boy, was Ricardo Irving gonna get it when they finally captured him, Chris thought as they followed the cart track around a long curve. Yes, hurting a prisoner once they were in custody was against BSAA policy, but the Agent figured that they should at least be able to _pistol whip_ him a bit after everything the target made them go through in order to get him.

"_Mungu wangu kuna mengi_." Sheva said, having to cover her nose when they discovered even more mutilated bodies. "This is a bad place, Chris, we need to get out of…

"Shhh, shhh, Sheva, hold on." He whispered, holding up his hand for her to stop. "Listen… do you hear that? What is that?"

Up ahead in the tunnel there was a faint flicker of orange light, so both of them clicked off their flashlights, and tried their best to not trip over the even larger number of bodies that littered the tunnel… until the tunnel opened up into a large and very tall chamber. The light that they had seen was coming from a pair of torches that were bolted to the wall just inside the tunnel on the far side, and there were people there. Yeah, there were four men; one of them turning a metal wheel to raise a metal gate between them and the chamber, while the next two restrained the struggling fourth.

"_Wacha niende_!" The prisoner yelled, struggling against them. "_Una wazimu_!"

The two who were restraining him would kick or hit their captive every time he tried to get away, and then they shoved him into the chamber as soon as the gate was open, only to have the one turning the wheel let go of it, so that the gate would slam down again. Whatever was going on there, the prisoner wasn't acting like he was infected, so of course the two BSAA agents had to help him. Coming up with a quick plan while the captive screamed and pounded on the gate, Chris saw that there was a metal wheel on this side of it as well, so maybe he could shoot the hostiles and…

And then the Agent's plan was brought to a screeching halt as something _big_ dropped down from the chamber's ceiling, turning the prisoner's cries into desperate screams as the shadow attacked him. The shadow screeched and growled, partially drowning out the gurgling sounds that were mixed in with the captive's cries for help, and then it floated off the ground, carrying its victim back up into the ceiling where it came from, and then there was enough torch light for them to see an arm fall to the ground a few seconds later after the last screams had stopped.

Once all the action had stopped, the three hostiles that had been jumping up and down while cheering the unseen monster on turned and walked back down their tunnel as if nothing had happened, but at least now they knew that this was definitely the way out. Of course, Chris now realized that all of the bodies inside the mine were victims of that flying monster, and he was so shocked by what had just happened that a couple minutes passed by before the Agent realized that there was no choice but to try and make it through that door into the other tunnel.

"_Hapana_… you're just as crazy as they are." The young woman whispered, sniffling a bit as if she had been crying. "You saw what just happened to that man, how the hell are we supposed to get over there?"

"Sheva, we don't have a choice." He whispered back, reaching out until he found her shoulder in the darkness. "That guy was screaming his head off, I think that's what attracts it… so if we're real quiet then maybe it won't even notice we're here."

Maybe.


	13. Chapter 13 Devil in the Dark

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Thirteen: Devil in the Dark**

Trying to keep his breathing under control, Chris had no doubt that he was just as scared to do this as Sheva when they took that first step into the tall chamber, but if they didn't then there was no chance of catching Irving before he got away. Honestly, if this was any other situation, then he would have said screw this and then worked on a way to catch the target at some other point, but with the deal going on, on top of that new bioweapon _and_ the possibility of a widespread outbreak in Kijuju, there was just no way to justify letting the scumbag go.

Not wanting to draw attention to themselves with the use of flashlights, the two of them were now dependent on the dim flickering of those wall mounted torches in order to see across the chamber, because not only did they have to keep the lights out, but it was possible that even making the noise of stumbling over one of the mutilated bodies on the ground could attract… whatever the hell that thing was up in the darkness. The good news was that it hadn't been drawn to the sound of the wheel turning to open the metal gate, so all the two of them had to do was get the gate open and then leave the creature trapped.

It was a simple enough plan, but that didn't stop the Agent from reflexively looking upward after each step, even though he knew that it was too dark up there to see anything. Even though it couldn't have been more than a couple minutes, it felt like hours had passed before Chris was able to get his hands on the wheel on this side of the gate, and then he motioned for Sheva to stay back just in case the creature attacked when he started to turn the wheel with a loud drawn out _screeeeeech_.

So far nothing dropped from the ceiling, but it must've been a long time since the wheel on this side was turned, because it was heavily rusted, and difficult to move even with as strong as the Agent was. Still, the gate began to rise very slowly, about an inch per half turn of the wheel, meaning that this was going to take forever, even though it was starting to become easier as he worked through the rust… but then it happened. While walking backwards and trying to keep an eye on the ceiling, Sheva must have tripped over a body, because she couldn't help but crying out, and when Chris looked back he saw that she was sitting on the stone floor.

Apparently the creature noticed that as well, because a second later there was a loud squeaking sound as that same shadow from before dropped down between them. _Crash! Bang! Bang!_ As soon as he saw that his partner was in danger, the Agent let go of the wheel, allowing the gate to crash back into place as he drew his pistol, firing a couple shots at the shadow while clicking his flashlight back on. Although they didn't seem to do much more than irritate the monster, the bullets got its attention away from Sheva, allowing the young woman to scramble away while it turned toward him.

With as quick and jerky as the thing's movements were, it was hard to see many of its features besides black eyes and a mouthful of sharpened teeth when it started to attack, but then it suddenly shied away for a second after looking into the beam of the flashlight. Chris fired a couple more shots, hitting the thing right in the face, but the monster must have spent a lot of time inside this cave, because the light was the only thing keeping it from pouncing on him, and the flashlight wasn't even that powerful.

"Sheva, get the gate open!" He yelled, circling away from the door while trying to keep his light right in its eyes. "I'll keep it busy, just hurry!"

The monster made a couple wild attempts to bite and slash him, each one made more difficult because of the light forcing it to look away, but at least now he had the other tunnel to back away down. There had been several branching paths that he had seen on the way in, and hopefully one of them could be used to either circle back or just lose the monster somewhere in the maze… although right now it seemed pretty hell bent on getting him. Continually looking back so that he didn't accidently trip over a body like Sheva had done, the Agent ducked into the first passageway that he came to, and thankfully the creature was too big to follow, allowing him to finally get a good look at it while it tried to grab him from the entrance.

It was a bat… or at least, might have been at one time, since even though its head was enlarged to a ridiculous size, all the facial features were still there from the long pointed ears to the nose. Leathery wings with long claws at the end were what was trying to grab him, but that was where the bat resemblance stopped, because the thing's whole back half was more like an insect with a shiny exoskeleton and segmented parts. After a couple seconds of trying to reach him, the monster seemed to give up, squeaking as it moved away from the tunnel entrance, and ran away into the darkness.

The direction it had gone was taking it away from both him and Sheva, so Chris allowed himself to breathe out a sigh of relief, but then he heard something behind him, turning around just in time to hear the monster's loud squeak as it attacked from down the passageway he was hiding in. This time the Agent tripped as he tried to avoid it, falling to the stone floor just inside the main tunnel, and then gasping when one of the thing's claws ripped across one of the pouches on his vest… the one holding his last grenade.

Since there was no safe way to carry the explosive now, and bullets just weren't doing the job, he used the flashlight to make the monster back off long enough for him to pick up the fallen grenade, and then scrambled away after pulling the pin. Having rolled the explosive right underneath the monster, Chris fired a couple more shots with his pistol to keep it distracted so that it didn't try to back around through the tunnel, and then the whole tunnel shook when the grenade went off with a loud _BOOM_!

Not waiting to see if the creature was dead, the Agent got to his feet, coughing from the smoke that was generated from the explosive while trying to run back to where Sheva hopefully had the gate open by now. Unfortunately, setting off any explosion inside such a confined space made it more intense to the point where Chris's ears were ringing and he was feeling a bit dizzy to the point where he had to put his hand on the cave wall to keep from falling over. The ringing stopped after a few seconds, but the dizziness was taking a bit longer, and… and now he could hear the creature's squeak from somewhere behind him.

So he tried to run faster, awkwardly stumbling over rocks and body parts while trying to say on his feet, and this was difficult even though the adrenaline was getting rid of his dizziness. It felt like the monster was right behind him, even though it couldn't have been or else he would be dead right now, but that knowledge didn't make the run back to the high chamber seem any shorter. That awful squeak was getting louder, meaning that the monster must have freed itself from the rubble and gone around the other passageway again, but thankfully Sheva was just getting the gate open all the way instead of abandoning it to help him.

"It's right behind me!" He yelled, his words echoing throughout the chamber. "We gotta go!"

As much as it looked like she wanted to dive right through the gate and start running, the young woman was struggling just to keep the gate open, with her arms shaking a little while the gate bobbed a couple inches up and down. There was no time to trade places since Chris could hear the monster squeaking as it ran up behind him, so upon reaching the wheel he put an arm around Sheva with pot breaking pace, and sort of football-tackled her into the next chamber while the gate crashed down behind them with a loud _CRASH_!

Less than a second later the monster ran into the gate, denting it slightly inward from the impact, and then squeaking in anger while clawing at it. With as strong as the creature was, it was a good thing it didn't understand how the gate worked, or else it could have just picked the thing up and continued the chase, but then again with that dent near the track, it was doubtful that the gate would ever raise again. So Chris gave the finger to the frustrated monster that was now trying to bite its way through the metal, and then he and the young woman helped each other to their feet.

"Did you _really_ set off a grenade inside a cave like this?" Sheva asked while they both leaned against the rocks for a second. "The intensified explosion could have blown out your eardrums, or collapsed the whole passageway and killed you… Jesus, you Americans really _are _a bunch of cowboys."

"Didn't really have a lot… of choices here, okay?" The Agent replied, trying to catch his breath. "Come on… come on, we gotta catch… we gotta catch that asshole."

Motioning for her to follow along as he slowly walked down the tunnel, the first thing that Chris noticed was that it was brightly lit, even though a little warm from all of the torches on the wall. The second thing was that this tunnel was a lot shorter than the way they came in, only going around a single curve before returning to the surface, where the sky was turning orange from the setting sun. Up ahead of them was a wide gravel road where a bunch of rusted old dump trucks were abandoned next to a shack that had a powerline running to it, and next to that was a vast open pit that had to be a hundred meters deep and way more across.

"I don't see any more caves around." The Agent commented, looking around for threats. "I thought this was supposed to be a really big mine."

"That pit over there is the mine." Sheva explained after making sure that no one was around. "Westerners always want to dig tunnels in the hopes of finding something, but here in Africa we have just been digging massive pits to find everything underneath for centuries."

This approach made sense, even though the pit looked just as abandoned as everything else around Kijuju City… except for the white SUV that was parked next to the shack… the one that looked like it was still in perfect working order as if someone like _Irving_ had just driven it there recently.


	14. Chapter 14 Ricardo Irving

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Fourteen: Ricardo Irving**

Staying crouched down as they made their way up to the shack at the edge of the mine, Chris got down even lower so that he could stay hidden while peeking through one of the small building's windows. The glass was dirty and cracked in places, but in the light of the single hanging bulb fixture in the center of the shack's only room, the Agent could see a man in a light colored sports jacket moving around quickly back and forth. There wasn't a lot of furniture around inside, but this guy looked like he was in a panic as he rummaged through every cabinet and cupboard like a criminal who was trying to clean house right before a SWAT raid.

Chris could hear him muttering to himself while shoving everything he could find inside of a small gym bag, and since he was alone, the Agent had to assume that this was the target. Motioning for Sheva to move around the corner and get on the other side of the door, they both stood up and he did a silent three count with his fingers before turning around and causing the man inside to let out a startled squeaking noise when he kicked open the door. The wood was so rotted that it was broken right off the rusted hinges, adding to Chris's intimidation factor in a way that made him smirk… until the panicked man picked up a pistol that was on the counter next to him.

"No, no, no, no." The Agent warned, already with his own pistol aimed at the target's head. "Put the gun down, Irving, there's nowhere left to run."

"Run? I ain't _runnin'_ nowhere." He replied in a shaky voice that was cracking. "Now both of youse drop your guns, and you get on the floor, big guy… I'm takin' the girl here as my hostage."

If someone was to look up the word _desperate_ in the dictionary, they probably would have found a picture of Ricardo Irving; a scrawny little man who was so sweaty with fear that his hair was all matted down, and it looked like he had been wearing the same cheap suit for a week. It was actually a little hard for Chris to believe that this guy was the one who had done all the damage to Kijuju City, yet there he was, looking like he was about to piss himself while repeatedly motioning for them to lower their weapons, even as the two BSAA agents surrounded him.

"Are you… are you _serious _right now?" Sheva asked as the man kept moving his weapon back and forth between them. "Irving, there's two of us… that means that even if you shoot one of us, the other will kill you, now… just drop it."

"Don't waste your breath, Sheva." Chris added, waiting for the right moment. "He's just another scumbag terrorist, like all the others."

Suddenly the target's mood too an aggressive turn as if those words offended him, saying loudly that he was _a business man with standards_, and then repeating that he was going to take the young woman hostage. This also gave the Agent the opening he needed, so as soon as Irving was starting to aim at her again, Chris stepped forward and grabbed the weapon with one hand while striking the target with his own pistol. _Whack_! One blow across the side of the head and Irving went down like a ton of bricks, bouncing off the nearby counter on his way down to the floor, and then gasping as something fell out of his pocket.

"All right, get up, scumbag." The Agent ordered, grabbing him by the jacket and pulling him to his feet. "So you got _standards_, huh? You look like a fucking used car salesman, now turn around."

Roughly spinning Irving away from him, and then forcing the target to bend forward over the counter, Chris twisted his wrist behind his back with one hand while using the other to reach for the handcuffs that were in one of his back pouches. Now the target was begging for them to let him go, saying that he would give them more money than they could make in five years, and that no one would ever know. Of course, this just made the Agent angrier, given that Reynard and all of Alpha Team had been killed trying to get this guy off the streets… and now he thought he could _bribe_ them?

"I got a better idea." Chris replied, pulling him back up once he was cuffed. "My partner here is gonna call for transport, but if you're a good boy and tell me _everything_ I need to know before the truck gets here, _maybe_ I won't shoot you in the foot just for fun."

"Geez, lighten up, will'ya?" Irving replied while Sheva used her radio to contact Delta Team. "I'll talk, I'll talk, just uh… gimme a sec to catch my breath, okay?"

Delta Team was still working on the Kijuju City investigation, but said that they could send one man with a truck to get the prisoner, although he had to take the long way around. This was fine since Irving wasn't going anywhere, and after waiting about a minute after the radio conversation was over, it was time for the little weasel to start talking. There was so much that the BSAA needed to know; confirmation of the outbreak in Kijuju City, information about the BOW that wiped out Alpha Team, as well as who Irving's supplier…

_Boom_! Something landed at the Agent's feet just as he was about to start asking these questions, and his mind was just starting to register that it was a flashbang grenade, before everyone in the shack screamed in agony from the incredible light that followed. With ears ringing and vision blurred, Chris drew his pistol in an attempt to fight off the ambush that he knew was coming, but all he saw was a single figure rush into the shack, disarming him before maybe… kicking him?

It was hard to tell without being able to see properly, but whatever the attack was, it sent him reeling backwards, while the white figure did the same thing to Sheva. The young woman cried out as she was struck several times, before being hip-slung right onto a table that completely collapsed under her weight, and Chris must have been seeing things, because as his vision started to clear, he caught of the figure's face. It was silver, with a beak like those old medieval _plague doctor_ masks, but the eyes were glowing red. As for the figure's body, it was slender and toned, clearly belonging to a woman based on the shape, but that was all he could get before she kicked him in the face.

"_We've got to go_." She said in a soft, feminine voice that sounded synthesized. "_Hurry_."

"Wait, my _PDA_!" Irving exclaimed as she was pulling him along after effortlessly removing his handcuffs. "Wait, damn it, stop pulling!"

The figure ignored the target's words, stopping only long enough to kick Sheva in the face when the young woman tried to stop her by grabbing her leg, and then she dragged Irving out of the shack. By this time the ringing in the Agent's ears was almost gone, and his vision was a lot clearer, so he stumbled after them, falling to his hands and knees outside the shack's broken door just in time to have gravel kicked up into his face as the white SUV sped away. Damn it, he knew he should have slashed the tires or something, but for now all he could do was try to stop them.

_Bang! Bang!_ Firing two shots, neither of which likely got anywhere near their mark, Chris screamed in rage, punching the gravel road while the vehicle vanished around a turn off in the distance. Sheva was recovering by this time as well, stumbling out of the shack and rubbing her bruised lip as she knelt down next to him to see if he was all right. Unfortunately, there was nothing either of them could do until the man from Delta Team got there, but… there _was_ that thing Irving dropped during the attempt to arrest him.

Just like the target had yelled during his rescue, it was a _Personal Data Assistant_, and since it was gonna be some time before transport arrived, there was no harm in going through whatever was on there, especially since Irving was willing to delay his escape in order to get it back. This PDA was one of the higher end models with a ton of storage space, so there were dozens of documents and pictures, many of which were a bunch of science things that he didn't understand. But the next thing he scrolled to was a picture that made the Agent freeze in place for several seconds to the point where Sheva asked him if he was all right.

He tried to respond to her question, but all he could do was form the start of a couple words while staring at the image on the screen. It was a close up shot of a woman's face who looked like she was asleep in some kind of medical pod like the ones they used to transport quarantines disease victims, dated just a couple weeks ago. Her skin was a bit pale and her hair was blonde for some reason, but there was no doubt at all… he was looking at a picture of Jill Valentine.

Suddenly a dozen horrible memories flashed through the Agent's mind, forcing him to see a flashes of the last time he had seen his old partner; a cliffside mansion, a fight, a broken window… no, those thoughts needed to get out of his head. Everything on Irving's PDA needed to be transmitted to Headquarters, because if there was the chance… just the slightest _chance_ that this picture was real, then it had to be investigated. But where was it taken? There had to be something about a location in one of the other files, so the Agent scrolled through everything he could find, but all that came up was an operation map.

A large area was circled on the document in a dotted line with the labels _OIL FIELD_, and _TEST CASE_, but since it was just a local map he had no way of knowing where that was. Finally broken out of his trance from the picture, Chris was able to ask her, but according to the young woman the only oil field around was in the marshlands, and they were not exactly close by. If that was where Irving had fled to with his mysterious partner, then they wound need Delta Team's truck to take them to the water's edge, and then either a seaplane or an airboat to get across the marshes.

Right now this was the only lead that they had, and even if it turned out to not be where the target ran off to, then at least they would get to find out why the whole area around the oil field was labeled as a test case. Whatever the reason was for that, the only thing Chris knew for certain was that it couldn't be good.


	15. Chapter 15 A Big Surprise

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Fifteen: A Big Surprise**

Fully recovered from the effects of the flashbang by the time that the man from Delta Team arrived with a Humvee, Chris and Sheva climbed inside, telling him the direction that Irving's SUV had fled, while using the truck's computer to transmit all of the information that was found on the target's PDA. Thankfully, Headquarters had an entire division of eggheads to start sifting through the data as soon as it was received, but there was one piece of information that had been verified by the time he used the satellite phone to report in.

Based on the Agent's observations, as well as that of Delta Team, and the information on the PDA, it was determined that Kijuju City was suffering an outbreak similar to the Las Plagas incident in Spain. The last piece of Intel needed for the determination came from Irving's files, where it explained that a new type of Plagas had been engineered from a sample that survived back in 2004, but whereas the original parasite was implanted unto a subject as an egg and could take about a week to take control… this new one, called _Type 2 Plagas_, could take control in a matter of seconds.

"So they force an adult Plaga down the victim's throat?" Chris asked, not feeling comfortable with the idea. "Shit… that explains why the people calling for help suddenly turned hostile, and… how the outbreak spread so quickly."

Damn it, he and Sheva had only been seconds too late to save those people, but now Headquarters had decided that the whole district of the city was to be quarantined until a solution could be found… God, it was Raccoon City all over again. But, at least the BSAA was working fast to capture Irving and prevent further damage, and who knows, maybe there was a cure? After all, both Leon Kennedy and Ashley Graham had survived being infected with the original parasite, so there was always hope.

Meanwhile, Delta Team had been pulled out of Kijuju City, sent on ahead to secure both the waterfront to gain access to the oil field, and to scout ahead in the marshlands to see if anything else could be learned before the attack began. Once everyone was safely across the water to where the oil field was waiting, the plan was for Chris and Sheva to assault the whole facility with Delta Team in order to either capture him… or kill the little weasel before he got away. Hell, the only thing keeping Irving alive at all as far as the Agent was concerned was that he might know where Jill was.

The drive from Kijuju City to the waterfront was a long one, and with both the target and the rest of Delta Team having a long head start, the best they could do was try not to lag too far behind. It was nice to be out of the city, though, and even though the trip took more than an hour, leaving the African Savannah much darker as the stars began to come out, at least there weren't hundreds of people trying to kill them. Hopefully this trend of nothing happening would continue until they reached the oil field, and then all of their efforts could be…

"Say again… you're breaking up." The driver said in response to the transmission that came through. "This is Mathers en route with Redfield and Alomar, say again your last transmission."

It was mostly static that was coming through when he let go of the receiver, along with a few random words that got through, and what sounded like… gunfire? Mathers tried to adjust the signal strength from his end, but nothing was working, leaving the only conclusion that Delta Team was under attack. But how could they be? All of the Intel that had been collected so far suggested that the new Plagas outbreak hadn't spread out of that one district of the city, so what was happening?

Was it possible that Irving had been prepared with another little surprise for Delta Team, like the one that killed DeChant? Not likely, since if the target had another one of those things, he probably would've used it when Chris and Sheva ambushed him back at the shack near the mine. That was another disturbing detail, come to think of it, since out of everything that had been sent from the PDA to analyze… there had not been a single mention of the black, corpse eating, tendril… _thing_ that they had fought in the old recycling center.

The driver kept trying to reach the rest of Delta Team on the radio, but now there were no transmissions coming from the ones sent to secure the waterfront at all, and the ones who had gone into the marshes with Captain Stone were probably well out of range for the equipment they were using. So now all they could do was drive faster, with Chris and Sheva having to hold onto the Humvee's roll bars every time they hit a bump or had to swing around a tight turn in order to stay on the dirt road. There was also no moon tonight, so the only illumination came from the truck's headlights, at least until the distant lights of that village came into view.

"All right, we're almost there, hang on." Mathers said, slowing down a little so that he could cross a narrow bridge across the canal. "I still got nothing from the guys, so hopefully their radio is just broken."

"Yeah, hopefully." The Agent replied, squinting to see up ahead. "Bring us in nice and slow, and we'll take a look around."

Once past the bridge, the truck rolled into what looked like a really tiny version of Kijuju City, with its buildings and roads built in exactly the same manner, they were just smaller and there weren't as many of them. There _were_ streetlights, however, not a lot just at the corner of each street inside the village, allowing the three of them to see… oh my God, there were bodies in the street. Instructing the driver to stop the truck, the group got out, keeping their weapons ready as they moved over to the nearest one, discovering that it was wearing the helmet and armor of Delta Team.

"Oh God, there's more." Sheva said, rushing over to the next one, and then the next. "Wait, they're… they're _all_ BSAA."

Chris hadn't noticed that at first, but unlike in the city, there were no bodies of hostile locals anywhere among the BSAA agents, in spite of how many bullet casings were lying on the ground. All of the casings were 5.56 NATO rounds, exactly the kind used in the BSAA's preferred M4 Carbine rifles, but none of the agents had been shot, either. At first Sheva was worried that they had been attacked by another black tendril monster, but although the bodies had been left in twisted, unnatural positions with expressions of agony on their faces, none of them had their skin burned off like Alpha Team.

Clicking on their flashlights, along with Mathers doing the same with the one on the bottom of his rifle, the three of them continually looked around what they could see of this smaller village, but nothing was there. It was starting to look like they should just try to find an airboat and take off after the others before something happened, and then something moved out of the corner of Chris's eye.

"Redfield, look out!" Mathers yelled, shoving the Agent forward hard enough to knock him off his feet.

It was a good thing the driver did that, because Chris had barely hit the ground when a very large piece of metal went flying right over his head, cutting off Mathers' scream as it smashed him into the ground with a loud CRASH! Wait a second, that wasn't just any piece of metal… it was a Humvee; dented and busted up beyond repair, yet somehow able to go flying through the air without anyone behind the wheel, and… and what was that really loud thumping sound?

Again seeing movement out of the corner of his eye, the Agent looked back just in time to gasp and roll out of the way as something huge came crashing down onto the street enough to make a depression in the hard packed dirt. Scrambling away from the huge object, Chris scooted across the ground like a stumbling crab as he realized that he was looking at a huge, discolored foot… a foot that was attached to an equally large leg… that was attached to something that was now reaching down to grab him with its hand.

_Bang! Bang!_ Firing a couple shots with her pistol to distract the monster, Sheva holstered it in favor of picking up one of Delta Team's rifles, grabbing as many magazines as she could from its previous owner, and then shooting. _Ratta-tatta-ratta-tatta!_ The monster grunted in what almost sounded like annoyance as the bullets struck it in the face like bee stings, causing it to forget about Chris and pass underneath one of the streetlights, allowing the Agent to get a good look at it.

It was a giant; there was no other way to describe the twenty foot tall horror that might have once been a human, with its heavily cracked, discolored skin, and growls of anger as it pushed the streetlight down to get it out of the way. Following the young woman's lead, he grabbed a rifle along with as many magazines that he could, slamming one in and then returning the favor of distracting it so that Sheva could get out of harm's way. The Agent wasn't stupid, he knew that something like this couldn't be beaten with such small weapons, so the only option right now was to escape.

"Get the truck!" He yelled as the monster began following him. "Sheva get the truck, we're gonna have to fall back!"

_Ratta-tatta-ratta-tatta!_ Continuing to throw lead at the monster, which didn't do much more than annoy it, Chris knew that he had to wait until Sheva had the Humvee ready before making a run for it, and… oh my God, this thing was wearing the bodies of BSAA agents upside down like tassels on its belt. Yeah, there were three of them, hung up by their ankles so that they were just kind of swinging back and forth, and… okay, she was in the truck.

Becoming pretty annoyed with him, the giant raised both of its arms to crush him, but as awful as it was, Chris used this moment to run right through the monster's legs, having to push his way past the bodies in order to get out the other side. Sprinting as hard as he could, the Agent ran right for the truck, and dove into the back while screaming for her to drive in a voice that was probably a bit higher and more panicked than he wanted to admit. So the young woman hit the gas and cranked the wheel to the left, kicking up some gravel and just missing being grabbed by the monster's hand as they tore their way down one of the village's streets.


	16. Chapter 16 The Bigger They Are

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Sixteen: The Bigger They Are**

Even with the truck, the giant was still gaining on them because of how long its strides were, so Sheva began making wild turns with the Humvee, causing the monster to sometimes just stumble as it tried to come after them, and once in a while trip so that it fell right into a small building. From where he was in the back, Chris kept trying to shoot the thing with his rifle, peppering its face and legs with tiny wounds that did… absolutely nothing, so he slung the weapon over his back before reaching into the back seats to see if there was anything useful inside.

"Yes!" The Agent exclaimed, pulling out a box of grenades just as the young woman took another sharp turn. "Sheva, find me a straightaway!"

Pulling on the parking brake and then turning sharply so that the truck drifted back onto the main road through the village, the young woman hit the gas in order to keep ahead of the monster who now had nothing to stop its pursuit. This gave Chris plenty of time to pull the pin on the first grenade and throw it, causing the monster to stumble a bit when the small explosion went off right next to its foot. The giant looked down at its foot with an angry growl while the Agent got another grenade ready, but instead of chasing them again, the monster walked over to an electrical pole and ripped it out of the ground.

"Oh shit!" Chris exclaimed as the pole was lifted over its head. "Sheva, hard left, now!"

She turned the wheel hard to the left just as the giant tossed the pole at them like a javelin, and the Agent couldn't help but be impressed, because the giant's aim was dead on and would have hit them if she hadn't turned like that. The pole tore up a section of the dirt road upon impact, making Chris have to turn his head for a second to keep it from getting in his eyes, but then he had to hurry up and throw another grenade in order to stop the monster that was now running at them as fast as it could.

This time he tossed the explosive upward, and when it went off the giant shielded its eyes with its arms, causing it to run right into one of the village's larger buildings so that the whole thing collapsed when it fell on its face. The thing didn't say down for long, though, and then an angry roar shook the whole village as it knocked down what remained of the structure in order to free itself. With the truck and the grenades the Agent knew that they could stay ahead of the giant for now, but there were only so many in the box, and what was going to happen when the Humvee ran out of fuel?

"We need a better plan!" Chris yelled to be heard above the wind. "We gotta find a way to lose… Sheva, head back for that bridge, dive as fast as you can and don't stop!"

The young woman didn't say anything in reply, but from how rapidly she was breathing and how tightly she was gripping the steering wheel, the Agent could tell that she was frightened out of her wits… just like he was. One turn later the bridge was in sight, but now the giant had crouched down and was running… God _damn_ that thing could run fast. Chris yelled for her to step on it, even though he already knew the young woman was going as fast as she could, and now that the giant was just starting to reach for them again, he pulled the pin on the last three grenades in the box at the same time.

_BOOM_! Tossing all three explosives right into the monster's face just as the truck reached the narrow bridge, sparks flew from the side of the Humvee scraping against the side supports, making Chris have to hold on to keep from falling off. As for the monster, it held up its arms to protect its face from the much more powerful explosion, and just like with the large building, it ran at full speed right into the bridge. There was a metallic scraping and bending sound as the side supports were warped and twisted by the impact of the falling giant, and now the platform of the whole bridge was shaking apart as well.

In fact, the whole structure was collapsing, rapidly turning into an upward slope, and if Sheva hadn't been driving at full speed their heavy truck probably wouldn't have made it to the other side before the whole thing fell down into the canal. Bringing the Humvee to a stop, the young woman pulled them alongside of the canal, and the Agent was relieved that even though the giant was still alive, it had become tapped in the twisted mass of the bridge's supports. It roared that was partially a gurgle as the water flowed right into its face, and the monster tried to force its way out, but its struggles had left it restrained at such an angle that it couldn't get any leverage with its arms.

"Is… is it over?" Sheva asked with a shaky voice. "Are… are we okay?"

Chris replied that he thought so, since the giant was trapped, but then instead of saying anything else, the young woman got out of the truck and stumbled a bit before falling to her hands and knees and losing her lunch. Now breathing so fast that she was hyperventilating, Sheva scooted backwards across the ground until she was up against the back tire of the Humvee, where she hugged her knees up into her chest and just sat there wide-eyed while the Agent climbed down from the truck.

"_Nini kutomba tu kilichotokea_?!" She screamed as he knelt down with her. "_Ni tu… na kisha ni… oh mungu wagnu… iliwaua wote_!"

"Sheva, its okay… everything's okay." Chris replied, not having a clue what she said as he hugged her. "We beat the monster, and you did great… I wouldn't be alive right now if it wasn't for you, but we can't quit yet. Delta Team needs us, and I need _you_ to back me up."

The Agent was worried that his new partner was about to cut and run, but what gave him hope was that she had been able to hold it together until after the giant had been dealt with. Okay, this all had to be reported to Headquarters, so Chris decided to give the young woman a few minutes to process everything while he took out the satellite phone to make his report. Standing up and moving away from the truck to get a better signal, the report he had to give was a simple yet grim list of events, including the request of a cleanup team to deal with El Gigante's angry cousin.

Once the report was finished, the Agent turned back around to check on Sheva, only to find that the young woman was getting to her feet. He asked her if she was all right, and the young woman nodded, wiping a tear from her eye while clearing her throat. This kind of reaction was expected, especially the first time someone encountered such an extreme situation, and Chris couldn't hold it against her, since there had been a time back at the Spencer Estate where even Jill had broken down like that… was it those giant spiders? He couldn't remember which thing it was, but he just hoped that Sheva wouldn't fall apart.

"I know we have to keep going." The young woman said quietly while pointing at the trapped giant. "If this is what people like Irving are doing to my people, then I know that we can't quit no matter how scary things get… and I am _very_ frightened right now, Chris. We're partners and we have to be there for each other, but… how are we going to get across the canal?"

He hadn't expected that last part, and now that the Agent looked at the only bridge for as far as the eye could see, he had to admit that he didn't have an answer. Obviously the bridge was a no-go, and he didn't want to risk trying to swim across just in case the current swept them right into the arms of the monster, so… what were they going to do, jump the canal in a Humvee? Actually, right now that didn't seem like such a bad idea, since there was no special equipment weighing the truck down.

"Are you sure about this?" Sheva asked as he got into the driver seat. "You really think this can jump that far? We, um… we could always drive down to another bridge."

"We can't afford to lose any more time." Chris replied, putting it in gear. "Delta Team's gotta be in the marshlands by now, and they're expecting us to be close behind with all of um… well, it's just us now, so get in. Partners have to trust each other, right?"

She took another look at the canal and then at the truck, before mumbling something in Swahili that sounded less than supportive as she went around and got into the passenger seat. Now that the young woman was inside, the Agent backed the truck up to where they both had a really good running start, and were a good distance away from the giant… and then he stomped on the gas. Dirt and gravel were kicked up as the Humvee took off, reaching top speed well before getting to the edge of the canal, and then flying into the air while Sheva closed her eyes tight.

_Slam_! The vehicle's shocks bounced hard upon contact with the other side, and now all Chris had to do was drive them to the waterfront and… and why weren't they moving? Wait, they were moving, just very slowly backwards as if… as if the truck had fallen short and landed on the canal's opposite embankment instead of flat ground… which the Humvee was now sliding back down toward the water. He hit the gas and switched to a lower gear for more traction, but that just made the truck slide back down faster, giving the two of them no choice but to bail out just before the back wheels hit the water.

Opening the doors and climbing out, Chris nearly fell down the embankment himself while watching the truck get swept away by the current… going all the way downstream to where the trapped giant growled when the rear bumper collided with its nose. Now the two BSAA agents had to work together to get up the embankment, which was mostly made of loose sand, with both of them letting out a long sigh of relief once they were on flat land.

"I will let _you_ do the report to Headquarters about this one." Sheva said while they caught their breath. "_Washirika wanapaswa kuaminiana… mjinga ng'ombe wa Amerika_."

"Yeah, I'll tell them later." The Agent replied as he got up. "Right now we gotta catch up with the rest of Delta Team."


	17. Chapter 17 Never Forget

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Seventeen: Never Forget**

The sun was just starting to peek over the horizon when Chris opened his eyes, and it took him a second to remember where they were as the airboat glided its way across the water. This was the marshlands, nothing but water with green grassy plants sticking out of it for as far as the eye could see. The journey from the village waterfront where they fought the giant took several hours by airboat just to get to the border of the marshes, so Chris and Sheva had taken turns driving while the other one got some sleep.

It was still going to take a long time to get to where Delta Team would have parked their own airboats, so the Agent took out the satellite phone in order to give another situation report to Headquarters; telling them that they had reached the marshes en route to assist Delta Team, and asking if there had been any update on the Intel about Jill, but leaving out the part about trying to jump a military grade Humvee over the canal. Unfortunately, there was no update on his old partner, so at the moment Irving was still their only lead.

"So what happened?" The young woman asked once the report was finished. "To your old partner, I mean… I understand if you don't want to talk about it, but the BSAA listed Jill Valentine as dead two years ago."

"Yeah, we all thought she was." Chris replied, looking off into the distance. "You ever heard of Albert Wesker? That asshole's been a thorn in my side since 1998, and two years ago we actually got a solid lead that we _hoped _would lead us to his location. Unfortunately, it did."

Now the memories started to flow again as he described heading to a place on the coast that was basically a replica of the Spencer Estate that had been destroyed before the Raccoon City outbreak. The target in that instance was a man named Oswell Spencer, one of the original founders of Umbrella, and a known associate of Wesker, who they hoped had the information they needed. Turns out that the tip was a good one, since just before midnight when Chris and Jill arrived at the mansion using a thunderstorm for cover… they walked into Spencer's study just in time to see the Wesker execute the old man by punching right through his chest.

"Wait, he just _punched_ through the rib cage with his _bare hands_?" Sheva asked, turning the airboat a little to avoid the thicker plants. "I heard Albert Wesker was strong, but that seems… _insane_."

"You ever seen that movie _The Matrix_?" Chris asked, looking back at her. "You know the part where those computer guys are moving so fast they can dodge bullets? Imagine that with blond hair, and a lot less fun to be a part of."

The Agent had gone into that place having already seen Wesker in action since his _upgrade_ back in Antarctica, but now the guy was somehow even faster, to the point where he and Jill hit nothing but air even though they emptied their entire clips at him. In only a matter of seconds the two agents were out of bullets, and it was like Wesker was toying with them as he would vanish from sight for a second, and then come back with some kind of overly exaggerated martial arts kick or something similar.

The blond man tossed him and Jill around the room like they weighed nothing, choke slamming Chris right through a hardwood table, and then punching the Jill in the stomach so hard that she partially destroyed a bookcase several feet away when she flew into it, only to vomit after collapsing to the floor. The Agent tried to fight Wesker off on his own, but the short version was that his attempt didn't work, and soon he was seeing white flashes with every punch as the blond man beat him into the floor.

Next thing he knew, Chris was being lifted off the floor by his throat while Wesker pulled back his fist to kill him in the same way as Spencer, but then Jill came out of nowhere. Distracted by what he was doing with Chris, the blond man was unable to do anything as the running woman locked her arms around his waist to tackle him like a football player… and then there was the _crash_ of glass shattering as the two of them went right out the window into the storm, along with a hundred foot drop straight down to where the waves were crashing against the rocky shore.

A search was conducted, but Jill's body was never found, and after a couple months she was declared dead, which… the Agent didn't take so well. He started drinking more, got into fights at the bar for no reason at all, and honestly if not for Amelia Ashland, who had been his rock ever since Terragrigia, Chris might have gone off the deep end for good. So he did the only logical thing available in his position: He took a couple weeks off work, and then married Amelia in Las Vegas.

"You became a drunken asshole, then ran off to Vegas to marry a billionaire?" Sheva asked, unable to help laughing a bit. "You've got one hell of a grieving process, Chris… let me guess… the _Elvis_ wedding?"

"_Shaft_, actually." He replied taking off his glove to show the gold ring on his finger. "They even had an _Isaac Hays_ impersonator, he was like; _'who's the man gonna take this fine young lady's hand? Chris… your damn right, he's a bad mother-watch your mouth'_."

There was more to the personalized _Shaft_ song that the Agent was not shy about belting out while Sheva just shook her head, because now that he knew Jill was alive, this was the first time that he didn't feel guilty about moving on with his life without his old partner. In fact, except for the time he spent with Amelia, which for some reason caused him to be happy no matter what he had been feeling before… weird… this was the first time in two years that Chris was genuinely happy… like there was hope in the world again, and everything would be okay once Jill was safe.

"So, what about you, Sheva?" He asked after the song was finished. "You know my stake in all this, so how did a bright young woman like you end up in the BSAA?"

"We have some time it seems, so I'll tell you the whole story." The young woman replied. "I told you that I grew up in a village just outside of Kijuju; it was a small place with _'none of the fancy stuff'_ as my father used to say, but the one thing he _did_ have was a radio, and because of it everything changed when I was fifteen."

Sheva told him about how her father's favorite program was _Star FM_, and that every Saturday he would go down to the only telephone in the village and try to win the weekly contests they used to do. Her father did this for years without even getting connected to the station, but then one day not only did he get put on the air, but he also won the contest by being the first person able to a believable impression of _Bill Clinton_ singing _I'm Coming Out_ by _Diana Ross_… okay, so the contests were weird back then.

The prize he won was the largest ever offered, a month long vacation for two that would take them to several famous places around the world, and the young woman remembered how everyone cheered for him. So Sheva's mother and father packed their best clothes and promised to bring back all kinds of photographs and souvenirs from everywhere they went, with the young woman eagerly waiting each day after they left for the village's telephone to ring. She received a call from India, and then another one from Japan, and she remembered getting really excited when her father told her that he had gotten a photograph with Denzel Washington in California.

"But I never got to see that picture." The young woman continued, taking a deep breath. "The last time I spoke to my father, he was in South Carolina, telling me how excited my mother was that they were going to spend several days onboard a luxury cruise liner… a cruise liner called the _Starlight_."

"Oh, my God." Chris replied, feeling a slight knot in his stomach as he realized what she was telling him. "Your parents were onboard the Starlight in 2001?"

Sheva nodded, looking away for a second as if trying to keep herself from crying, and that certainly explained why she had reacted so violently to the mention of Tobias Liquid's name back in the mine. The Starlight had been the sight of a terrible outbreak during Umbrella's last days, in which Tobias and Gillette Liquid infected everyone onboard with C-Spores… none of the passengers or crew survived, and the Starlight was sunk to stop the outbreak from spreading further.

"My father was a very brave man." The young woman continued, sniffling a little. "I am _sure_ that he tried to protect the other passengers, and I like to think that he gave Tobias one _hell _of a fight before the end, but… my decision to join the BSAA came when I heard that Barry Burton _himself _boarded the Starlight to save them."

It was too late by then to save her parents or anyone else, Sheva knew that, but Barry defeated the Liquids _and_ stopped the outbreak from hurting anyone else. The lesson that the much younger Sheva took from that whole disaster was that there will always be evil people out in the world, and even if everyone couldn't be saved, the BSAA could at least show criminals like Tobias Liquid that victory will not come easy. And who knows, maybe when they captured Irving, maybe some of the people of Kijuju could still be saved.

Chris wasn't sure what he could say after hearing this story, even though he really wanted to comfort her somehow… God, after all that, it must've broken her heart when it came out that the CIA recovered Tobias and Gillette from the wreckage instead of destroying them… and even more so when they ended up at large again after the incident in Spain. All the Agent could do was assure her that they were definitely going to capture Irving, and then his whole operation was going to be blown wide open.

"Look, there it is!" The young woman exclaimed, stopping him from having to try and think of anything else. "Delta Team's airboats!"

"Delta Team, this is Redfield, come in." Chris said, into the local radio since they had to be in range now. "Delta Team, Captain Stone, do you read me? This is Redfield, what are you guys doing, listening to the football game?"

Even though he tried several times to raise them, so far there was no response at all from Delta Team or their leader, but… but their airboats were right there. There were four of the watercraft, all parked on the shore at the edge of what looked like the old tribal village that Sheva said surrounded this side of the oil field, so where was everyone? The first thing he looked for were bodies in case there was a giant there as well, but none could be seen from there, and… actually, nothing could be seen at all. No people, no fires, no nothing… so what had happened to Delta Team?


	18. Chapter 18 The Tall Man

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Eighteen: The Tall Man**

Even though he felt a little better now that he was carrying a rifle with plenty of extra ammo, Chris was unnerved with how quiet this place was once the engine of the airboat was shut off. As for the old tribal village, it was surrounded by a wall that was made up of the trunks of palm trees that grew in the surrounding area, while through the open gate the Agent could see that the homes the people lived in were nothing more than thatch huts with grassy roofs and walls that were made in the same manner as the fence.

Nothing moved as the two of them passed through the gate, nor were there signs of people around, but there had been multiple sets of boot prints in the mud that led away from the airboats, meaning that the rest of the team must have come this way just a few hours before. Dozens of fish were hung on racks near fire pits, and there were some brick ovens outside as well, which explained how the people there were able to make all the elaborately decorated pottery that was scattered around each hut… although the fish looked like they had been there for a while.

Taking a peek inside of the first hut they came to, Chris saw that there were blankets made of animal hide lying on the ground for the different people who lived there, as well as a few possessions that were probably precious to them, and some rugs that were probably hand woven. So far this place was exactly like what someone would see on the _Discovery Channel_, with the obvious exception of the people, whose absence was making the Agent more and more on edge all the time.

"The people here shouldn't be like the ones in Kijuju City." Sheva said as they moved deeper into the village. "We're way outside the infected district, so they shouldn't want to kill us, but I should do the talking, since they're not exactly trusting of outsiders."

"That's fine, I don't speak Swahili anyway." Chris replied while doing a spin to look around them. "Only thing we're missing is people to talk to."

Suddenly there was movement, followed by a deep echoing voice that caused the two of them to raise their rifles while turning quickly to face… a rather odd looking man. Easily seven feet tall, this man's body was covered in ash and war paint as if something out of a really old movie, while dressed only in grass and bark-cloth that was tied around his waist with a rope, along with a really elaborate wooden facemask that kind of resembled a, uh… lion? The mask covered his whole head, explaining why the voice was echoing as he continued to talk while making wild movements with his arms. So far Sheva wasn't translating, so Chris asked her what their new friend was saying, and it genuinely shocked him when she replied that she didn't know.

"Wait, you don't know what he's saying?" The Agent asked, understandably confused. "How do you not know? Didn't you grow up with this language?"

"Okay, smartass, he said _you have inflated the scooter-pie_." The young woman replied sharply. "Then he said _although you can lead me to water, you cannot force me to drink Zima_, and then he topped it all off by declaring that _there will be no taxation without grapefruit, for I am the Anti-Christ_. There… now you have all the answers… aren't you a lucky boy?"

Wow, that really _didn't_ make any sense, and Chris was starting to apologize to her, when the tall man resumed his wild arm movements, before speaking again and finally pointing inside of the much larger hut that he had come out of a moment ago. Beckoning for them to follow him as he went back through the door, the Agent slowly followed the tall man inside, where a horrific smell awaited him, as well as an even worse sight. There were three members of Delta Team lying dead on the floor, but the lower halves of their bodies had been completely crushed with enough force to crack the wooden plank floor underneath them.

"He said _the gopher's toe has risen to the east_." Sheva translated from outside while Chris swallowed hard. "Now he said _if you let me order a bowl of fried clams we could all have smallpox in the morning, but your circumcision still requires a booster shot_, and uh… _stand still_."

While the young woman was translating, the tall man walked over to the back of the hut, where a very large hammer that was way too big for a normal person to wield, and looked like it was decorated with more war pain and, uh… human skulls. Lifting the huge weapon with even more ease than the executioner back in Kijuju City had wielded his blade, the tall man started to raise it over his head while growling, but this time the Agent was ready. _Ratta-tatta_! Aiming his rifle and firing a short burst of bullets into the tall man's legs, his attacker stumbled forward to his hands and knees while Chris backed out of the hut, but as expected the tall man got right back up.

"Is he infected, too?" The Agent asked, keeping his rifle aimed. "Is that what's wrong with him?"

"Maybe he's why this place was labeled _Test Case_ on Irving's map." Sheva replied, readying her own weapon. "I will never understand, no matter how much money can be gained, how can someone _do_ this to people?"

There was no time to debate the reasons for why greedy people did evil things to their innocent victims, especially when one of those victims was now seven feet tall with a hammer capable of literally crushing grown men to death, but they couldn't let this monster live after what it did to those men from Delta Team. _Ratta-Tatta-Ratta-Tatta_! With both of them firing their rifles on full auto, the tall man's entire body was peppered with tiny holes, causing his wooden mask to be blown apart as he dropped the hammer and fell to his knees.

Just like the rest of his body, his head and facial features were stretched to a ridiculous level, and although he was growling like all the other infected, his glazed over eyes kept crossing while a large amount of drool poured from his downward hanging lower lip. The discolored blood that was pouring out from his wounds smelled even worse than that of the zombies back at the Spencer Estate, but then something large and purplish brown colored started to force its way out of his mouth, only to shriek as retreat back inside as soon as it came into contact with direct sunlight.

Yeah, this thing was definitely a kind of Plagas parasite, Chris thought while the tall man started talking again, releasing even more drool as the slurred words came out. Leon had said in his report that the parasites didn't like too much light, but this one's behavior was different than that of the other Type 2 Plagas that had been attacking them in the city. Whereas those ones had simply been aggressive like a Pitt-bull that had been given the attack command, this one seemed confused like it didn't really know what to do, even as it picked up the hammer again to continue the attack.

"He said _this hurts me more than it hurts the Bishop_." Sheva translated as they reloaded their weapons. "Now he's warning us that _we have become known to the Grand High Lynx_."

"Okay Sheva, I think you can stop now." Chris replied, motioning for her to move away in the opposite direction. "Whatever's wrong with him, he's just another BOW now, and if we get on both sides he might not know who he's supposed to attack."

This strategy seemed to be working, with the tall man getting to his feet and then continually looking back and forth but seemingly unable to decide on a target as if… as if it wasn't used to having to make such decisions. Either way, this confusion gave them the time they needed to attack, so Chris and Sheva aimed for his head and neck where the parasite had retreated into, while pulling the triggers for tight controlled bursts in order to save ammo. The tall man groaned, swinging the hammer wildly as if feebly trying to stop the bullets, but then he started to get angry… so angry that he screamed in slurred rage while tossing the hammer at Chris as hard as he could.

Diving sideways to avoid the spiraling weapon, the Agent managed to hit the dirt in time to avoid being struck by it, but he was not fast enough to avoid the collapsing walls of the hut that the hammer had struck instead. Not even having time to take a breath after avoiding the hammer, Chris cried out in surprise and pain as the dozen palm tree trunks that made up the wall fell down onto his back and legs, their combined weight pinning him down while the drooling monster slowly walked toward him, apparently finally having made its decision on which of them it was going to attack.

"Sheva, I'm stuck!" He called, struggling to free himself. "Sheva, do something!"

Instead of shooting it again, Sheva ran up from behind and shoved the tall man forward as hard as she could just as it was raising its leg up to stomp on Chris, causing him to fall forward so that his head struck the edge of the fallen hammer with a wet squishing sound. This time, however, the tall man didn't just get up and keep attacking, instead its whole head just collapsed into nothing, allowing that purplish brown form that they had seen earlier to emerge completely.

It looked like a cross between some kind of insect and a deformed growth as it shot out of the tall man's neck, making a high pitch shrieking noise as its incredibly long and sharp mandibles opened and closed. The remains of the collapsed hut provided it with enough shade to not have to retreat back into its host body, so the growth was able to lash out at Chris just as the young woman was helping him get free… but apparently the growth was also tethered to the body, so its attack fell short.

Snapping its mandibles hungrily, but unable to reach its intended victim, the growth stopped moving for a moment, and then its host body began to get up. However, since the parasite had been good enough to expose itself like this, there was no reason why the Agent shouldn't stop his escape long enough to draw his pistol and start pulling the trigger. _Bang! Bang! Bang! _Joined in with the young woman's rifle, the parasite shrieked as it was hit with a dozen bullets, forcing it to make its host body roll away in an attempt to escape, but then shrieking again when it rolled itself right out into direct sunlight.

Without the body's head to protect itself, the parasite flailed around desperately while its body began to smolder, and its shrieks slowly became quieter while the mandibles slowed down. After one more attempt to get up, the growth went limp, thumping onto the ground and shriveling up into a kind of purple goo while the host body stopped moving all together. Pulling his leg out from under the last palm tree trunk, Chris laid back and let out a sigh of relief since the danger was over… but that was when he noticed that the village was no longer empty.

Where there had been no one except for the tall man around only moments before, now there were a dozen figures surrounding the two BSAA agents, many of them holding spears, and all of them wearing ash and war paint just like the tall man.


	19. Chapter 19 Ritual Sacrifice

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Nineteen: Ritual Sacrifice**

Chris hadn't even had time to get up after being freed from the fallen palm tree trunks, when the bystanders attacked, but as far as ambushes go it was the most awkward and disorganized thing he had ever seen. Instead of attacking all at once, the villagers came at them a couple at a time, allowing the two BSAA agents to fight them off for a few seconds before being overwhelmed by the others. Some of the people tried to grab their weapons, while a couple made a dive at the ground in order to restrain their ankles, and one of the villagers even went the wrong way, running right into a tree.

Because of how many there were, eventually the confused people were able to subdue them, and now Chris and Sheva were being dragged across the mud by their captors. Even this was awkward, since the villagers were just grabbing any part of him that they could, as if they didn't understand the easiest way to do things and were trying to figure out, well… _everything_ as they went. Like the tall man, all of these people were covered in ash and war paint while wearing grass and bark cloth, with the same glazed over eyes and drool coming out of their mouths… like there was something seriously wrong with them beyond a plagas infection.

All of them were speaking while their captives were dragged deeper into the village, and when the Agent looked over at her to find out what it meant, she just shook her head, meaning that it was more gibberish. It was like the parasites were trying to use words and move their host bodies in a mostly normal fashion, but they were all still trying to figure it out, which was weird since back in the city the Type 2 Plagas were able to take perfect control of their hosts within seconds, and the original parasites were even better at it because of all the time they took to assert dominance.

Chris struggled to break free, but even with as confused as the villagers were, they were incredibly strong to the point where the Agent couldn't break the grip they had on his arms or on any other part of his body. So there was nothing he could do as he and Sheva were taken up a short hill to where a whole different part of the village was visible. It was built in the same manner, but the difference was that there was a platform bridge built across a wide canal where water from the marshlands could flow through, but the bridge was built so high above that water that a long steep ramp was needed on both sides of the shore to reach it.

For a moment Chris was turned over while the group dragging him went around a hut to head toward the bridge, allowing him to see that this was actually the part of the village where they needed to be, since the metal pipes and walls of the oil field's main facility could be seen off in the distance beyond a pathway toward the west. But then he was flipped over again, only to gasp when he saw another detail about the bridge that he was being dragged toward… there were BSAA agents on the platform.

There were three of them, with their weapons and body armor taken away just like Chris and Sheva, but strung up so that they were hanging by their wrists to a wooden beam that was extended just off the platform so that the agents were hanging above the water. One of the villagers stepped forward, slurring his words and drooling heavily while pointing at the three men and angrily stomping his feet until it all started to look like one of those old tribal dances that could be seen on a festival day. Some of the others villagers joined in, moving with no coordination as they tried to follow what he was doing like it was their first time doing what should have been tradition.

Did that have something to do with what was wrong with them? In the Kennedy report, it said that the parasites retain the memories and personality of their host, but was this a bad batch somehow? Were the parasites defective in some way that only allowed them to absorb the instincts and ancestral memories of their hosts? That would explain why they could talk but only in nonsense, and were able to move and attack but with no coordination whatsoever, and why they were acting like the tribals of hundreds of years ago… and then the dance stopped when the man leading it picked up a machete.

"Sheva, you've got to do something." Chris quietly urged as they were dragged onto the platform. "They're confused, there's something wrong with these plagas; maybe you can talk them down since they're not so single minded."

The three BSAA agents nodded their heads franticly for her to try, since none of them could speak with the rags the villagers had shoved into their mouths. So the young woman gave it her best shot, calling for the attention of the villagers and then speaking very calmly and passionately about what the Agent assumed was her argument for them to stop all this nonsense and free their captives. For a moment all of the hostiles fell silent, kind of looking back and forth at each other before making a reply that made Sheva hang her head.

"He said _this is the day of the fat tiger snowstorm_." The young woman replied sadly. "Then he said _I apologize for the slow internet connection, but only a sacrifice can make Wayne Newton bless the Starship Enterprise_... Chris, you've got to do something, they're going to _kill_ those men!"

The Agent struggled to free himself as the village leader handed the machete to one of the other men nearby, but these people were so damn strong, far more so than the infected ones in Kijuju City, and there was nothing he and Sheva could do but yell for them to stop as the man carrying the blade walked up to his first victim. Doing some more of that clumsy tribal dance and shouting up toward the sky, the villager let out a slurred growl as he swung the blade… only to miss his target completely and spin around to where he fell from the platform.

_Splash_! Everyone looked down as their comrade vanished into the muddy water, but it looked like he was okay when he came back up a couple seconds later… at least until something else moved right next to him. In a flash of teeth and scales, something big jumped out of the water long enough to clamp its jaws around the villager, and then they both vanished back under the water with a bigger _splash_… and that was it as a large amount of discolored blood began to float up toward the surface.

For a while everyone just stared down at the water until all of the ripples were gone, and then the village leader started jumping up and down, motioning for one of the spear carrying men to come forward and continue with the sacrifice. Unfortunately for them, this man's parasite must have been just as defective, because although he swung the spear hard enough to cut through any rope, his aim was off so that the pole struck it repeatedly while the sharpened head was nowhere near it. The others cheered him on as he continued to hit the rope, succeeding only in making the BSAA agent shake around… until he got so frustrated that he tossed down the spear and leapt onto his intended victim.

Snarling and drooling as he wrapped his legs around the first BSAA agent, the villager pulled at the rope with all his strength, resulting in a cracking sound that came from the beam just before it broke under the added strain. _Splash_! The villager and all three of the intended victims vanished into the water, with Chris having to look away as the huge alligator or whatever was down there started moving again, and then all of the villagers cheered while stepping forward to resume dancing… even the ones who had been holding the Agent and Sheva.

Releasing their hold on the last two captives and then stepping forward to join the ancient tribal dance, it was as if the villagers had simply forgotten about them once the archaic ritual of sacrifice was complete, so Chris quietly motioned for the young woman to follow him as he began to carefully scoot his way toward the ramp at the end of the platform. There was no way to reclaim their weapons that were now in the hands of the dancing infected without being noticed, nor was there anything that could be done for the men of Delta Team that had fallen into the water, so the two of them crawled back down the ramp, with the Agent pointing to the path that he hoped led to the oil field.

"Come on, it's this way." He whispered as they stayed crouched down to avoid being seen. "If we hurry, we can still catch Irving."

Suddenly a voice started yelling from behind, and Chris didn't need to speak Swahili to know that they had been spotted. The drooling villagers took off after them immediately, but apparently running was a new thing for them as well, causing one of them to fall off the bridge into the water as the chase began. One of them tossed his spear, but his aim was so bad that it ended up in the back of another villager who was running in front of him, and another growled as he pulled the trigger on a pistol… but the weapon was backwards in his hands, causing him to shoot himself in the face.

With all of the villagers constantly falling down and hurting each other during the chase, Chris and Sheva were able to reach the path and follow it into a palm forest before most of their pursuers even got down the ramp, but that didn't mean that they could slow down. So the two of them ran as fast as they could, finally being so out of breath that they had to stop for rest even though the villagers were coming down the path right behind them… except that they weren't.

"What happened?" The young woman asked after about a minute of nothing coming down the path after them. "Not that I'm complaining, but… why aren't they after us?"

"We must be out of their attack range." The Agent suggested, hoping that this theory was correct. "Plaga parasites only go after threats that come within a certain range, and I guess it's even smaller for these ones because they're so confused… so why didn't these ones work out when all the others did?"

Either way, they were no longer being chased, which was great not only because the two of them were unarmed now, but also because the main facility of the oil field was just a short distance ahead. Yeah, the gate around the metal building was just on the other side of this clearing, but then Chris stopped when he saw something else in front of it. There were a bunch of really big OD Green Army tents set up before the gate like the ones the Red Cross and that TerraSave organization always used, but it wasn't either of those logos that was printed on the tent, but three pentagons of different shades of green, while underneath the logo were the words:

_TRICELL AFRICA_


	20. Chapter 20 The Oil Field

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Twenty: The Oil Field**

With all of the large tents set up, along with the supply crates stacked up in short piles, this clearing looked more like a Red Cross aid station than the entrance to an oil facility, even though it looked like it had been abandoned a while ago. There were signs on each tent written in both Swahili and English that were labeled as _Inprocessing_, _Evaluation_, and _Treatment_ in that order from left to right, with each tent filled with a row of cots along with a desk that might have once had a computer plugged into it.

Every cabinet inside was empty, though, as were the supply crates as if the people working there had been forced to leave in a hurry, but this all confused Chris because Tricell was one of the largest sponsors of the BSAA. In fact, it was the largest pharmaceutical company in the world ever since Umbrella went under, but the confusing part was the question of why an aid station like this would be setup at all if no one knew that an outbreak like this had occurred. Of course with no records left in the filing cabinets, this was a little difficult to answer.

Still, it had to be reported to Headquarters, so the two of them stayed inside one of the large tents in order to stay out of sight in case any of the villagers wandered by while he was on the satellite phone. The good news was that the last cleanup crew that they requested was just finishing up with the giant, although it would take a while to transport the monster somewhere that it could be dealt with… he didn't want to know where such a place was. However, because of how difficult it was proving to quarantine a whole district of Kijuju City, it was going to be some time before another team could be sent to start securing the village.

"You need to tell anyone you send out here to be real careful." The Agent warned, wishing that he had been able to get a few images to transmit. "The situation here isn't like in the city; the villagers have reverted to an almost primitive state, and they're confused easily, but they're strong as hell and they don't go down easy."

Chris decided to leave out the part about the people there speaking only in a bunch of nonsense, and instead went ahead with the rest of the mission report, starting with the fact that between the giant and the villagers, everyone from Delta Team had been killed. He corrected himself once Sheva reminded him that they hadn't found Captain Stone among the bodies or the sacrifices, so… yeah that was weird, where the hell _was_ he? If the villagers had captured him, he would have either been crushed inside that hut or tied up at the bridge, but… did that mean Stone was still alive?

"_Let us know if you find Captain Stone_." The contact replied once the report was finished. "_But don't deviate from your primary objective… it seems that capturing Irving is the only way any progress is going to be made at all_."

"The way they talk, you'd think that no one from Headquarters had _ever_ been in the field." The young woman commented as soon as the conversation was over. "We're going to catch Irving, and he's going to pay dearly for what he's done to my people, but… if anyone thinks I'm going to abandon Josh out here, they've got another thing coming."

She was absolutely right, and Chris knew that more than anyone after the hell he and Jill had been put through on the Queen Zenobia just to find evidence against someone. In the end the evidence was found, and the FBC was disbanded, but honestly if O'Brian hadn't resigned from the BSAA after that whole mess was finished, the Agent probably would have punched him right in the face for everything that happened. But, whatever the agenda for any of them was, nothing would be accomplished until they actually entered the oil facility, so the two of them left the tent and started toward the gate after checking that none of the villagers were around.

The iron gate was badly rusted from neglect, but the padlock was destroyed and the chain was on the ground, allowing the Agent to easily push it open so that they could enter the courtyard. This place was a mess of pipelines, pressure valves, and holding tanks, but as the two of them looked around at the grated catwalks and waste bins, it was becoming obvious that no oil had been processed through this place in quite some time. Unfortunately, the ground there was too firm for tracks to be left, like the ones they had followed from Delta Team's airboats, so this search was going to have to be done the old fashioned way.

"All right, check for anything that looks like it's been touched recently." Chris said as they moved past another holding tank. "Bins that aren't as dusty as what's around it, paths that aren't as overgrown as others, anything that points to what parts of the building are used by someone hiding out here."

The facility was gigantic, built to handle an influx of crude oil from drilling sites across a fifty square mile radius, as well as pumping out the results of the first stage of refinement, so it wasn't like they could just pick an entrance and then start searching from room to room. For a while there was nothing to speak of, with all of the equipment having neglected for who even knew how long, and all of the doors locked up so that their latches were coated with rust as well… except for one. One of the doors toward the far end of the facility, had a scratch along the rust as if someone had needed to force it open recently.

"Good going, Chris." The young woman said, finding the latch unlocked when she tried it. "We would have never found this clue if you didn't know what to look for."

"Yeah… no sweat." He replied, deciding not to tell her who had taught him to do a search when he was a rookie cop. "Push it open quietly… Irving might be in there."

Since the door had been opened recently, the squeaking of its metal hinges was quieter than it would have been if they were the first, allowing the two agents to pass through undetected into a chamber that looked like a factory. There were more holding tanks and pipelines, each with pressure gauges and valves that could be turned in redirect flow, but unlike out in the village, there didn't seem to be anyone around at all. No, wait a second, there was a noise… yeah, there it was again, sounding almost like a grunt of pain that was coming from further inside the building.

Yeah, now that Chris was listening, he could hear the sound of a man grunting as if he had been struck, and a couple seconds later a sharp _bam_ as something was slammed hard onto a metal surface. Reaching for his pistol… but then remembering that the villagers had taken all their weapons, the Agent put his finger to his lips for her to keep quiet as the two of them moved past the pipes and machines, heading toward the sounds that hadn't stopped yet. Hold on, there was another sound as well… a higher pitch one that was almost like… laughter?

"You BSAA goons think you're so tough, don't'cha?" A familiar voice asked form up ahead. "Yeah, you're a bunch'a heroes gonna save the world, ain't that right, tough guy? Well, you ain't lookin' so tough from where I'm standin'."

That voice definitely belonged to Irving, and once the two agents got closer, they were able to peek around a larger holding tank to see that the target was right there… but he wasn't alone. His partner was there, too, the woman in the plague doctor mask, and Sheva had to put her hand over her mouth to keep herself from gasping when the woman slammed her knee into Captain Stone's face, who had been kneeling in front of her. His weapons and armor were gone, and as he fell onto the concrete floor Chris could see that there were cuts and bruises forming all over his face… all while Ricard Irving laughed at him.

"Yeah, real tough, real tough, _Josh_." The target laughed, aiming a pistol at him. "But lemme ask you this, tough guy… if you'se in the BSAA are supposed to be so tough, then why are you gettin' your ass kicked by a girl, you little bitch?"

"The only bitch here is _you_, Irving." The Captain spat as he tried to get up. "You act like you are strong, while hiding behind a woman… you are the worst kind of coward."

Josh tried to take a swing at him, causing Irving to yelp like a frightened child while jumping back, but the plague doctor was there to save him once again by catching the Captain's arm and twisting it behind his back. He tried to grab her with his other hand, but the woman kicked him in the back of the knee, forcing him to kneel down and then restraining him while Irving balled up his fist and punched Josh in the face as hard as he could. The Captain twitched a little from the hit, and then did a sort of coughing laugh while the target tried to hide how sore his hand was now while stepping away.

"You are a coward and a bully, Ricardo Irving." Josh said, spitting his blood on the target's shoes. "And to top it all off, you hit like a crippled old _bibi_."

As he said those words, the Captain reached up and grabbed the plague doctor, using his weight to sling her forward in an attempt to free himself, and he succeeded in breaking her grip. However, instead of falling onto the floor, the woman gracefully cartwheeled to her feet, only to spin around and kick him right in the mouth, knocking him to his hands and knees. Josh got up as fast as he could, attacking the plague doctor with all of his fighting skill, but as he was struck repeatedly in the face and in the body, it became clear that this woman was out of his league.

Meanwhile, Chris and Sheva were using this fight as cover so that no one would notice them ducking behind every pipe they could while sneaking closer to Irving. The plague doctor was clearly the muscle of this operation, but the target had the gun, and they could use it to make her back off as well once they had him. Looking around for anything that could be used for a weapon, but finding nothing that could actually be useful, the Agent got ready to grab the laughing man, tensing up his muscles and getting ready to choke the little prick to death… but then his vision went white as everything tilted.

_Whack_! Even though she was still fighting with the Captain, the plague doctor managed to pick up a small piece of pipe after giving him a kick to the stomach, and then toss it accurately enough to strike Chris in the head from across the room, before hip-slinging Josh onto the floor once again. By the time his vision had cleared enough to move, a shocked and angry Irving was pointing his pistol at him and Sheva, and since they were unarmed, there was nothing they could do at the moment except put up their hands.


	21. Chapter 21 Escape Plan

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Twenty One: Escape Plan**

"You'se two, on your knees, hands on your heads." Irving ordered, pointing his pistol at them threateningly. "Well, if it ain't the _big shots_ who said I look like a used car salesman; I paid a lot of money for this suit, you know."

"_There's no time for this_." His partner interrupted in that synthesized voice of hers. "_Most likely they've already called for backup, so the window of your escape is…_

Yelling at her to shut up, even though the plague doctor was clearly the brains of this outfit, the target kept his attention on his three captives, but that didn't stop him from pacing back and forth while muttering to himself as he tried to come up with a plan. Instead of forming one, however, Irving told the prisoners that they could've avoided all this if they had just minded their own business, but now they were all gonna die for a bunch of shithead people that nobody cares about.

"Nobody cares about them?" Sheva asked in disbelief as the target started pacing again. "All the people in Kijuju City and this village have family and friends, children… how can you not understand that these are human beings whose lives you are destroying?"

"Probably because no one cares, like I said." Irving replied as if he were annoyed. "Umbrella fucked up by infectin' people in America, why, because people _care_ about America. No one cares about some shithole place in Africa, where the people ain't nothin' but a bunch'a losers anyway… at least till the fuckin' BSAA started pokin' their damn noses around."

"You are going to _pay_ for what you have done to our people." Josh said angrily, starting to get back up, only to have the plague doctor push him back down. "Even if you kill all of us here, more will come if nothing else, to avenge the women and children of this village who…

Interrupting the Captain's words by mocking him in a high pitch voice, the target reemphasized that he didn't care about the people of Kijuju, before correcting Josh that the men of the village killed the women and children as soon as the parasite took control. Apparently, the village was a testing ground for the latest _Type 3 Plagas_, but unlike the rest of the parasites, these ones were unable to infect even a single woman or child… causing them to be seen as threats and outsiders to the men.

Now Irving was ranting, scratching his head while saying that he knew the idea of putting genes from a _Control Plaga_ into common ones was a bad idea, since the dimwits didn't know how to think on their own, leaving them disorganized and unable to be deployed effectively in the field. Sure, the hosts ended up stronger and faster than the Type 2's, and they could jump real good, but what good was that if they couldn't use words right, organize an attack, or even keep a couple of unarmed dickheads from getting to the oil facility? So Type 3 was a failure, and officially off the market… what a waste of time and money.

"Do you'se know how long it took to get to get those tribal morons to trust us?" The target continued, getting angry again while going up to Sheva and pressing his pistol into her ear. "The Type 3 prototypes had to be injected like the original, see, but even after we got'em to believe we was givin'em a _vaccine_ for a super flu, some of the mooks didn't want it. Well, the joke was on _them_ a week later when everyone else turned."

"You're not gonna get away with this, Irving." Chris warned, trying to get his attention away from the young woman. "The best thing you can do right now is surrender because the BSAA will _never_ stop coming after you, and besides… do you think your suppliers, or whoever you work for are just gonna let you _live _after all the attention you caused?"

Irving started to say something back to this, but then stopped as his face turned slightly pale, looking over at the plague doctor as if he were frightened of her. Clearly the target had never even considered the possibility that his newfound popularity with the BSAA could put his life in danger even from his comrades, but he was sure considering it now. The Agent hoped that this would make him see the light, and that Irving would surrender so that the three agents could subdue his partner as well, but instead it was like a lightbulb went off over his head as the target began to laugh.

"Okay, yeah… here's what's gonna happen." He began, taking the handcuffs from Sheva's pouch and tossing them to his partner. "I'm gonna take _cutie_ here as a hostage for a little boatride, see, and you'se two mooks are gonna get on the horn with your boss, and tell'em I'm dead."

So Irving's new plan was to fake his own death and keep the young woman as insurance to make sure Chris and Josh went along with it, or else he would kill her. Keeping his pistol aimed at them while the plague doctor put the cuffs on Sheva, the target pushed her out of the way so that he could pull the young woman to her feet himself, making sure to comment that maybe there was something good about this part of the world after all, while groping her. Now the gun was at Sheva's head again, with Irving pulling tightly on her hair to make her cry out while waiting for them to get on the radio.

"We do not have a way to contact Headquarters from here." Josh quickly said. "We are only carrying a short range radio for local communication, and you killed the rest of my team… we would have to go back to the airboats."

"_We need to leave now, Irving_." The plague doctor spoke up. "_Take the girl if you want, but we have to go right now_."

His partner wasn't taking no for an answer this time, grabbing the target's gun arm with one hand and Sheva's handcuffs with the other, making it so Irving wasn't able to aim at the two men even though he tried to. So instead, he reached his free hand into his pocked, pushing the button on what looked like a car remote and then laughing as the three of them vanished around the corner. As soon as they were out of sight, Chris and Josh got up in order to start chasing after them, only to stop as some kind of buzzer went off… with the two agents jumping a little when the door of a nearby metal storage container in front of them flew open.

Apparently their target still had a few surprises up his sleeve, and after what happened to Alpha and Delta Teams, the two men weren't about to just try and run past the container without knowing what was inside… and then they just looked at each other after hearing what sounded like a small engine being pulled. It was completely dark inside the container, and without flashlights or pistols, the two of them could do nothing but listen as the engine was pulled a couple more times, before revving up loudly as something came running out of the container at full speed.

It was a man, with cracked and slightly discolored skin like all the others, shirtless and with some kind of bag over his head, but the important thing was the very large chainsaw in his hands. Sparks flew as Chris and Josh ducked out of the way, causing the spinning blade to hit a large pipe instead, and then the snarling, enraged man swung at them again, forcing the two agents to keep back, and then having to run away when he began chasing them. Without weapons this kind of thing was a lot harder than it was supposed to be, and Irving was getting farther away with every second that they were stuck there.

"Chris, can you distract it for a moment?" The Captain asked after just narrowly avoiding another attack. "I have a plan."

There wasn't much choice once Josh backed off, leaving the Agent as the closest target for the chainsaw man, and now even harder to avoid being cleaved in half as he got out of breath. So Chris waited until the chainsaw man did an overhead swing, before grabbing the base of the saw and attempting to wrestle the tool away from the infected man. Clearly this one was from the Type 2 series, since it wasn't able to overpower the Agent right away, but it was difficult to keep a grip on the weapon while the infected man kept whipping it around in order to get back control.

With the oil spurting in his face and already being tired from everything that happened today, it didn't take long for the chainsaw man to be able to throw Chris off his feet, with the Agent landing on his back while the infected man stepped forward finish him off. Raising the blade above his head again, he was just about to bring it down, when Josh reappeared with the metal bar the plague doctor had thrown at him earlier… making the infected man growl as he stabbed the pointed broken end into his back as hard as he could.

With an angry roar, the infected man swung the blade at the Captain, who gasped and stumbled backwards as the edge nicked his shoulder. Instead of pursuing Josh, however, the chainsaw man turned back to finish off the Agent, but then received a shock of his own when Chris kicked him in the chest with both feet. Now it was the infected man's turn to get knocked from his feet, but since the metal bar was still stuck in his back, the fall made him growl again when the floor pushed the sharpened broken bar the rest of the way through so that it was sticking out the front of his chest.

"Grab it!" The Captain exclaimed, scrambling to get the saw before the infected man could recover. "Get the saw! Do _not_ let him recover!"

Now that his hands were covered with oil, it was a lot harder for the Agent to grab onto things, so the struggle to get the saw away from its owner became an awkward battle where all three of them almost got cut at some point. The two agents kicked at the infected man, trying to use the bar that was impaling him for leverage, but finally Josh got tired of this and started pushing the saw toward the infected man… when the blade was lined up with his neck. Even this was a struggle, with the chainsaw man resisting as soon as he realized what was happening, but once Chris started pushing down on the blade as well it wasn't long until foul smelling, discolored blood was spraying in both their faces.

The infected man growled and flailed around, but the spinning blade just kept sinking into his neck further and further until the struggle ended with his bag covered head hitting the floor. As soon as the infected man went limp, Chris and Josh fell to the floor as well, letting the chainsaw stop running while they both tried to catch their breath. There was no time to rest though, because Sheva's life was in danger, and Irving had a really big head start.


	22. Chapter 22 Nowhere to Run

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Twenty Two: Nowhere to Run**

Exhausted from everything that they had just been through, Chris and Josh followed the path that Irving and his partner had taken, leading them out of the facility's main chamber and down a long, empty corridor, before the next door led them back outside. Like all of the other structures built in the marshlands, the rear of the facility was right on the water, with a wooden pier stretching out a short distance before ending… at a large white patrol boat? Yeah, it looked like one of the old _Super Dvora Mark II's_, used by the Coast Guard of several countries… and it was getting away.

Running down the pier as quickly as they could, Chris nearly slipped on the wet planks, but all their effort was for nothing when Ricardo Irving was seen standing on the rear deck… giving them the finger as his boat started to pick up speed. The plague doctor was with him as well, forcing the captive Sheva to remain on her knees while they made their escape, and now… and now how in the hell were they going to stop them? There weren't any more patrol boats in sight, and the air boats were fast, but they were all the way back on the other side of the village, so…

"Chris, over here!" The Captain called, running down toward the other end of the docks. "Come on, we can take one of these."

Following Josh with nothing on his mind but rescuing Sheva, Chris was eager to take any craft that was available… but he was also a bit skeptical when he saw the small metal skiff that barely looked seaworthy with all of the rust and the motor that was probably older than he was. There weren't any other options at the time, expect for a couple other tiny craft that looked even worse, so Chris asked if there were any weapons onboard, only to have Josh reply that it was a fishing boat, and that they were pretty lucky that it even had a motor at all.

Pulling on the starter a couple times, the Agent had to say that he was pretty surprised that the old motor even started, but as they slowly pulled away from the dock, he wondered if the old thing was going to be fast enough to let them rescue Sheva. So far at least the boat wasn't taking on water, and everything was going fine while they picked up speed, at least until the distant figure of Irving could be seen walking up to some kind of device that was mounted on the end of his boat's rear deck, and… that's funny, it almost looked like some kind gun like…

_Fwoosh-BOOM!_ A faint flash of light came from the weapon, and then a trail of white smoke was created before a small projectile exploded nearby in the water, with Chris and Josh having to hold on to keep from being thrown out of their small boat. Once the smoke cleared, Irving fired another shot, this one soaking the two agents with water when it exploded even closer to them, forcing the Captain to turn the boat sharply to the left to avoid the third shot that would have hit them for sure.

"God damn it, _of course_ his boat's armed." Chris grumbled as the target got further away. "How the hell are we gonna catch him now?"

"His boat might be fast and armed, but it's also very big." Josh replied, steering them deeper into the marshes. "Which means that we can go places he can't."

Pushing the motor as hard as he could, the Captain kept them on a south west heading, while assuring the Agent that he grew up in the marshlands, and that they would rescue Sheva in the end. It was frustrating, though, since they were still moving in a direction that was taking them farther away from the patrol boat's last known heading, and so far there had been no sign of it. Several minutes passed with their skiff passing through grassy plants before making Chris lose all sense of direction when they had to go through the mangroves, with each…

"_Shit takatifu_!" Josh suddenly screamed as the patrol boat appeared like a driver running a red light. "Hang onto something!"

One second everything had been quiet, and then it was just _there_, with the Captain having to turn the motor as hard as he could in order to avoid a direct hit. Their craft still collided, with a loud scraping sound being made as the skiff side swiped the patrol boat, but at least with them being this close there was no way for Irving to fire his deck cannons at them. In fact, once Josh slowed down just a little bit more, the Agent was able to reach up and grab the base of the rear deck's guardrail. There was no choice but to abandon the little skiff, since there was no one left to drive it once the two agents climbed their way onboard the patrol boat, but… but why was no one attacking them?

Seriously, Chris had expected to be ambushed by the plague doctor the moment they were on the deck, but the woman was nowhere in sight… nor was Irving for that matter. The open style rear deck was deserted, but someone had to be driving the boat, so they started toward the bridge, when their target reappeared with his still handcuffed hostage. A couple bodies of locals could be seen lying on the floor as he came out, but there was still no sign of the plague doctor, so… what the hell was the target playing at?

"Why won't you'se just _die_, huh?" He spat, keeping his pistol pressed into Sheva's neck. "God, you're like cockroaches, just can't get ridda'em no matter _what_ ya do."

"It's over, Irving." Josh replied with anger in his voice. "There is nowhere left to run, so do the smart thing for once in your life, and let Sheva go."

Chris was worried that the nervous looking man would start shooting, while also hoping that he would just face facts and give himself up, but the target didn't do either one of those. Instead he began ranting again in that annoying New York accent, going on about how he had done all the work in getting his operation off the ground, _blah-blah-blah_, he hated how everyone always looked down on him, _blah-blah-blah_, and now his partner had killed the boat's crew and abandoned him when the going got tough and…

"You're breaking my heart, asshole." The Agent replied sarcastically, just wanting that squeaky voice to stop. "Now let Sheva go, toss your gun overboard, and then _maybe_ I'll try to stop Captain Stone from beating you to death."

"That will be a difficult thing for him to stop." The Captain added, cracking his knuckles. "Especially if you have harmed Sheva in any way, so release her while you still can."

"I got a better idea; go fuck yourself." Irving replied angrily, aiming the pistol at the two of them. "Now you two bozo's can either dive overboard right now, or I'm gonna put a bullet in your _dick_, how does that…

As soon as he was no longer pointing the weapon at Sheva, the young woman turned the target's words into an outcry of pain when she rammed the back of her head into his face. Next stomping on his foot with her boot heel, Sheva kicked the pistol out of his hand so that it slid over the edge of the deck into the water, and then the young woman spun around and kicked him in the chest so that he fell on his back while she retreated over to the others. A moment later her wrists were free once Chris unlocked the handcuffs with the key from her pouch, and now the three agents just looked at Irving got up to his knees.

"Lose the dumb faces, chumps, cause' this ain't over!" The target yelled as something slid into his hand from up his sleeve. "Didn't you'se never wonder how I walked right through all those infected morons, while you'se got attacked at every turn? _Control Plaga_ are a rare thing, losers, but I got one _right here_!"

The Agent's eyes widened as he looked at the reddish purple substance in Irving's hand, knowing full well what could happen if such a specimen were to get unleashed… anywhere at all, but what was he planning to do with it? Dump it into the marsh? Whatever the target's plan was, the Agent urged him not to do anything reckless, but instead of making any more demands, Irving stuck the specimen cartridge against his own neck, and hit the button. Unlike normal Plaga, which took a week to take control of a host, this one started to turn the flesh around the injection point black before he had even let go of the button, making Irving cry out in pain as the blackness began to spread.

"Fuck you!" The target yelled, groaning in pain as his skin started rippling. "I'm gonna kill all _three_-a-you'se, and then I'm gonna kill all those jerks who dicked me over! That's right, you schmuks, with this I can control every worthless mook in Kijuju, and we'll see whose laughin' when I infect this whole…

His words became an agonized scream as several long gray tentacles shot out of the target's back, making his discolored blood pour down onto the deck as he stumbled sideways. More of them were shooting out of different parts of his body, with his limbs bending backwards as they changed into a hardened substance that began to enlarge, leaving him with no way to catch himself after falling onto the railing… and tumbling over the edge with a small _splash_. Now everything was quiet again, except for the patrol boat's engines, which must have been on autopilot or something, but there was no sign of Irving anywhere.

A few small bubbles were seen coming up to the surface as the patrol boat got farther away from where he fell in, and all was quiet for almost a whole minute, until a large dark shadow could be seen moving toward them underneath the water. _SPLASH_! Suddenly breaking through the surface like a jumping whale, the three agents were knocked off their feet when the boat was rocked from the creature's nearby landing, soaking them with a large wave of water that came up onto the rear deck… but the thing that had come alongside the patrol boat was no whale.

It was as big as one, to be sure, but with spikes coming out of its massive dorsal fin, and some kind of boney plating covering its alligator-like head. The tentacles that had come out of the target's back were still there, although severely enlarged and just kind of hanging back as the monster swam forward, but if it really needed to grab onto something, the talons at the end of its big arms would probably be enough. Now the monster moved closer, nearly knocking Sheva overboard when it sideswiped the patrol boat, and then laughter was heard… surprisingly _human_ laughter as the alligator snout opened to reveal what was left of Irving himself.

The only thing recognizable of the target was most of his face and a little bit of his torso, but other than that he was just gone, looking like he was wrapped inside of some kind of discolored, fleshy cocoon that was hanging from the very tip of the monster's tongue… or rather… was he supposed to _be_ the thing's tongue? Either way, the fish monster formerly known as Irving was big and dangerous, laughing again as he did another sideswipe.

"That's right, losers… bow to the King of the Plagas!" He yelled as the mouth closed to conceal him. "I am beyond anything you'se could ever _hope_ to become, so get ready, you mooks, cause' here I come!"


	23. Chapter 23 King of the Plagas

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Twenty Three: King of the Plagas**

Even though the mutated Irving's speaking voice still sounded human, the growl that came from the monster was much deeper and louder, seeming to fit the creature's newfound size as it came to sideswipe the patrol boat once again. However, this time it missed its mark, with Irving's human voice letting out a frustrated growl of its own as the monster actually started to lag behind, now starting to move its tail faster in order to catch back up.

Picking up enough speed to overtake the patrol boat completely, the three agents onboard braced for impact, but the creature only managed to graze the rear deck as it went too far toward the other side, as if Irving was having trouble controlling his new body. Of course, after undergoing such a rapid transformation with no time to get used to it, it was understandable for him to be a bit uncoordinated… but the command plaga inside him was smart, and it was only a matter of time before he figured it all out.

"You two, see if you can get control of the boat!" Chris yelled as the monster tried to circle around. "I'll try to hold it off with the deck gun!"

Once the mutated Irving figured out how to use his new body correctly, the three agents were going to be in a lot of trouble, but the monster was bigger than the patrol boat, so maybe the Captain's strategy of going places it couldn't, was their only hope. Maybe they could get the mutated Irving to run aground or at least escape from it long enough to contact Headquarters for an airstrike or something… but until then the deck cannon that almost killed Chris and Josh a little while earlier was their only hope.

_Fwoosh-BOOM_! Aiming the cannon and pressing the trigger, a trail of white smoke was formed as the small projectile flew toward its target, creating a small explosion when it hit one of the monster's armor plates. The good news was that it was easy to hit such a large target as it moved around the patrol boat, but the mutated Irving's armor was so strong that all it did was put a small crack in the surface. So the Agent hit the reload button, and fired again, this time hitting one of the plates on the monster's face, but did little more than slow the monster down for a second.

"_What was that, a mosquito bite_?" Irving's human voice asked as it corrected its course. "_Here, maybe it'll help if we can both hold still a minute_."

Laughing hysterically as it struggled to get behind the patrol boat, instead of coming forward to try and ram them again, the monster's tentacles shot forward, making the boat shake when they landed on the edge of the rear deck, and then wrapping themselves around the corners of the guard rail on each side. At that moment Josh and Sheva came back out, saying that the boat was locked on course electronically, and that they couldn't force it off without risking being left dead in the water.

Now the engines were bogging down as the monster's tentacles started to retract, slowly pulling them back toward the mutated Irving while Chris reloaded the deck gun. _Fwoosh-BOOM!_ Firing right at the thing's face, there was another small explosion as a second small crack was formed in its armor plate, but the monster just kept coming. Each shot that he fired slowed it down a bit and damaged its armor a bit more, but it just wasn't enough, and now there was only a single shot left in the weapon.

"Chris, aim for its tentacle!" Sheva exclaimed, pointing at one of the fleshy tethers that were anchoring it to the ship. "Maybe we can shake it off and escape!"

"No, do not fire!" Josh ordered, grabbing his wrist when he started to aim at the tentacle. "If Irving wants to get us so badly… then let the greedy _mwanaharamu_ come and get us."

At first the Agent thought that the Captain had gone crazy, asking him as much while trying to aim the cannon again, but Josh stopped him a second time, asking Chris to simply trust him as the mutated Irving got closer and closer to the rear deck. Now the human voice was laughing again as the alligator-like jaws began to open, preparing to rip the entire back end of the patrol boat off as the laughing remains of Irving himself were revealed and… holy shit, Irving was exposed.

_Fwoosh-BOOM!_ Grabbing the cannon and aiming quickly, the Agent pressed the trigger, missing the target itself, but still causing the projectile to explode in the monster's mouth right behind Irving. His hope had been to kill the little bastard, but what happened next was just about as good, with the startled monster's jaws instinctively clamping shut… while Irving's remains were sticking out just a little farther than he probably wanted. _Snap_! The tongue-like tether holding him to his new body was severed, causing the tentacles to kind of fall away from the patrol boat while the monster stopped moving completely… and the target himself was thrown onto the rear deck with a wet sounding _splat_.

Without usable arms or legs, what remained of Irving was forced to just lay there on the deck while his monstrous body slowly sank down into the marshlands, and now that it was no longer being restrained, the patrol boat picked up speed as it resumed its programmed course. The self-declared King of the Plagas was now nothing but a useless lump of discolored flesh that groaned in agony as it flopped around on the deck as if that would do it any good. To top it all off, his body was exposed to direct sunlight once the boat passed through the latest group of mangroves, causing his mutated flesh to begin bubbling up.

"Fucking Excella." Irving groaned with pain in his voice. "This Plaga was supposed ta be top-a-the-line… guess I'm not worth the good stuff."

It seemed that the mission to capture this man was finally over, even though it didn't look like he was gonna last very long with the way his body was bubbling up from the sunlight like he was being boiled alive from the inside. This was supposed to be a time to catch their breath, but Chris needed to know more about the photo he had found of Jill, and whether or not she really was still alive. Instead of answering, Irving coughed while laughing a little, replying sarcastically that the BSAA was right on top of things as usual; angering the Agent enough to want to punch him, but surprisingly Irving reacted when Sheva used his name.

"Chris? Holy shit, are you fuckin' _Chris Redfield_?" The target groaned. "God, they was right… tough as hell but dumb as they come… Uroboros is about to change the whole fuckin' world, and you'se clueless idiots are chasin' your tails."

"What is Uroboros!?" The Agent demanded, getting angry again. "What happened to Jill Valentine?! There was a picture of her on your PDA, where is that facility located?! Answer me, you piece of shit!"

There was no point in threatening him, since Irving's body was melting away into nothing, it was just that this guy was their only lead to… _anything_ that was going on with this whole disaster. If he died then it was back to square one with a big outbreak around Kijuju and no answers, but thankfully Irving wasn't done talking just yet. He said he owed his _partners_ a little payback for this, and that all the _mooks _had to do was let this boat take them to its programmed destination, and they would find all the answers they could ever want.

"So go on, Chris." Irving laughed, coughing as he slowly became a puddle of foul smelling muck. "Go find the truth… it doesn't matter, though… cause' you're still screwed! I just wish I could see the look on your face… when you find… your… answers…

With that the last recognizable parts of his body were gone, leaving nothing left of Ricardo Irving except that big puddle, which was rapidly evaporating in the sunlight. Good ridden, the Agent thought, one less scumbag terrorist in the world, but… where was this boat taking them? Either way, all of this had to be reported to Headquarters, so he took out the satellite phone and began to update them on the situation, only to receive some startling news. With a widespread as the outbreak in Kijuju had become, all BSAA assets were ordered to withdraw from the region immediately to prevent the loss of their people's lives.

"We can't pull out now." Chris argued. "Irving's been neutralized, and we've got a solid lead on his partner. If we don't follow it, she could get away."

"_Your argument is valid, but the withdraw order stands_." The contact replied. "_Transmit all data for analysis, and then retreat beyond the Kijuju Autonomous Zone to await further orders_."

With that, the conversation was over, but the Agent couldn't just abandon the mission when they were so close… especially with how Irving made this _Uroboros_ thing sound like some kind of doomsday weapon. Crap, he was hoping not to have to go solo on this one like Leon had been forced to do in Spain, but he couldn't ask Josh and Sheva to violate their orders. Still, it would have been nice to have a weapon of some kind, since this boat didn't even have a flare gun, and the cannon was empty even if he _could have_ somehow carried it along.

"_Naira kumi anasema American anataka kuendelea_." The Captain said with a slight snicker. "_Vipi huyu mchungaji ng'ombe ameweza kubaki hai bila wewe_?"

"_Atakufa kwa dakika ikiwa amebaki peke yake_." The young woman replied. "And that's why I'm going with him; Josh these are _our_ people whose lives Irving's partners are playing with, and if some _kijana mweupe_ is willing to fight for them… then it would shame the memory of my parents if I ran away now."

Then it was settled… as soon as they got to their destination, Chris and Sheva would continue on, while Josh used the boat to get back to Headquarters and try to get the withdraw order cancelled. After all, situations like this one tended to escalate the closer they got to the source, and it was a good bet that the two of them were going to need backup when they caught up to the plague doctor again.


	24. Chapter 24 Following the Trail

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Twenty Four: Following the Trail**

Since the patrol boat had such a larger fuel capacity than the airboats, it shouldn't have surprised Chris at all that their destination was several hours away, especially since the craft wasn't exactly traveling at breakneck speed. Making several turn and changing speed all the time along this pre-programmed route which was probably the only way it could go because of depths changes, the day had reached well into the afternoon and there was still no sign of where they were going.

It wasn't like the Agent could contact Headquarters again to update them on his position or request supplies, but there was something else he could do with the satellite phone, so he took it out of his pouch and sat down on one of the chairs next to the boat's helm. Ignoring the usual speed dial function and typing in a number manually, it took him a minute to remember what he was supposed to push first based on where he was, and what part of the world he was trying to call… thankfully he managed to figure it out.

"Hey, Amelia, good uh… is it evening there?" He asked after she picked up. "Yeah, I'm still in Africa… I miss you too, babe. What? Oh okay, tell Claire I said hi, and… wait, my sister's there with you? Sure… no, I'm glad you're having a girls night… I just really miss both of you."

"I miss both of you, too." Josh called out while he and Sheva snickered. "_Kwanini upon a bum kama Chris? Uko nje ya ligi yake._"

"_Napenda jinsi hakuna American wanaweza kusema lugha yetu_." The young woman continued as they laughed a bit more. "_Naweza kusema chochote ninachotaka na hautawana na wazo .Mwambie Claire kuwa yeye ni mrembo na ninataka awe rafiki yangu wa kike_."

Both of them laughed even harder now, with Chris forcing a fake laugh of his own before going back to the conversation he was trying to have. No matter what was happening around him, just hearing Amelia's voice was enough to instantly make him feel good, as if all of the problems of the world were just melting away for a few minutes as they talked about nothing special at all, and he was so glad that his wife and Claire got along. Of course, it surprised him when she said that she wanted to talk to his new friends on speaker.

"Hello Amelia, this is Josh Stone." Both of them said, still laughing a bit. "And I'm your husband's new partner, Sheva Alomar, greetings from Africa."

"_Habari Josh, asante kwa pongezi, lakini mimi ni msichana bahati kuwa na Chris_." Amelia's voice replied, stopping their laughter. "_Na pole Sheva, Claire hapendi wasichana… lakini mimi. Ikiwa wewe ni mrembo kama sauti yako, unapaswa kulala na mimi na Chris. Kaa salama kwaheri_. Love you, Chris, bye for now, darlin'."

"Bye Amelia, love you too." Chris said before ending the call. "I had no idea she could speak Swahili… what a woman, huh?"

The Agent's mood was a hundred times better now, but he figured that the others must have been missing their families as well, since they just sat there silently for a while as the patrol boat continued on. He offered them use of the phone, since he was probably breaking rules himself by using it for personal reasons, but Josh and Sheva declined… man, they seemed really down after that, making him feel bad for calling home. After all, he Chris knew what a lucky man he was to have Amelia, and the sad truth was that not everyone could have that.

For about a half hour longer the patrol boat continued cruising along, and then the mangroves and endless grassy waters gave way to a small mountain range off in the distance. He expected the boat to turn in order to avoid the rocks, but instead they just kept going straight toward it until an opening appeared, which was big enough to accommodate the patrol boat when it passed through the entrance into a large cavern. A wooden dock was already built inside, which the boat pulled up as it completed its programmed course… with a smaller boat already tied off to a section of the dock up ahead.

Was that the craft that Irving's partner used to get away when she abandoned him? Was the mysterious plague doctor somewhere up ahead in this underground cave? Now that their initial target was dead, that mysterious woman was their only hope of finding answers to whether or not Jill was really alive, as well as to what the hell this _Uroboros_ thing actually was that everyone kept talking about, so there was no choice but to keep following her trail into the tunnels that lay ahead.

"So, there is nothing I can say to make you come back with me?" Josh asked as the two of them prepared to disembark. "Headquarters will be more likely to listen to all three of us, and once the withdraw order is cancelled, we can come back to this place with a full strike team."

"You're right, Josh, but we don't know what that woman's plans are." Sheva replied while Chris helped her step over onto the dock. "For all we know, she could just be destroying evidence here, and by the time a strike team comes back, she will have disappeared."

"That strike team still sounds like a good idea, though." Chris added. "Something tells me we're gonna need them once we finally get to the bottom of this… these things tend to get even crazier the closer you get to the source."

Now that the programmed course was completed, the autopilot was unlocked, allowing the Captain to take control of the patrol boat once they had said their goodbyes. He waved to them from the helm while reversing in order to exit the cave, and then the motors became faint as he sailed away… and then the two agents were alone again. They had been on their own before, but at least they had been armed in Kijuju City, while here… here the Agent could only hope that they were able to find something to defend themselves with.

"Chris, do you remember what Irving said before he died?" The young woman asked as he started by investigating the smaller boat. "That names he mentioned, _Excella_?"

"Yeah, I remember." He replied, finding that the boat's key was missing. "So, what's an Excella, is that the name of a city or a corporation?"

After laughing for a second, Sheva explained that it was a person's name, as in _Excella Gionne_, who was the Director of Tricell's African branch. Normally, she wouldn't have given the name any thought, but after seeing the Tricell logo on all of those tents at the medical camp outside the oil field… it was enough to at least raise a red flag. As he kept searching around the smaller boat, Chris mentioned that it didn't seem like a smart move for a pharmaceutical company to have _anything_ to do with someone like Irving, given what happened with Umbrella, while their yearly contributions to the BSAA kept the company in the spotlight.

"I don't know, Sheva, it seems a little far-fetched." The Agent answered, moving into the boat's back seat. "Unless you think this Excella person was kicking our asses in a bird mask not too long ago."

"Definitely not; I don't think that woman's done a _moment_ of physical labor in her life." Sheva replied. "And besides… Excella's breasts are _far_ larger than the plague doctor's."

Chris didn't have a lot to say about that last comment, since he had never seen the woman before, but thankfully he was able to change the subject by announcing the discovery of a large hard plastic case underneath the boat's back seat. Setting it on top of the seat and opening it, the Agent was thrilled to discover that it was a survival kit; including some first aid stuff, a flashlight, a swiss army knife, and a large pink flare gun. He didn't care so much for the color, but the signal device came with six cartridges, each of which could be as deadly as a bullet if used right.

He was the better shot of the two, so the Agent took the flare gun, and they divided up the first aid supplies, while the young woman took the flashlight and the knife. At first she scoffed at the size of the thing, commenting that it was going to be useful if they had to open a can of beans at any time, but then Chris told her about how his life had been saved by a quarter back at the Spencer Estate, causing her to silently consider this as she put the tool inside her pouch. That case had been the only useful thing inside the boat, so as soon as he loaded one of the cartridges into the weapon and snapped it closed, it was time to move on.

Apart from the dock, the chamber's only feature was another passageway that was toward the back, so they went up a short rocky incline to reach it, only to discover that the next tunnel was going to take them even further underground. The main chamber had been illuminated by sunlight that was coming in through the entrance, but the tunnel ahead was completely dark, so it was a good thing they found the flashlight. Clicking it on as they started down the passageway, the beam allowed them to see that the terrain was rocky and rough, with low hanging edges coming down from the ceiling that they would have surely walked into without it.

"The plague doctor must've had her own flashlight." Chris commented, stumbling a little bit on a smooth spot on the stone floor. "What do you think she's doing down here?"

"I don't know." The young woman replied after helping him catch himself. "This place looks like an old smuggler's tunnel, so there's probably some kind of safe house at the bottom, or… _mungu wangu_."

Stumbling again as she said this, the Agent looked back up just as he went around the next turn, only to stop in place while having the same startled reaction as her. As soon as the tunnel turned to the right, it opened up into a gigantic chamber that looked about the size of a residential block in the suburbs, and it was illuminated by sunlight that came down from a hole in the center of the stone ceiling. That amount of light in itself was nowhere near enough for the whole chamber, except for the fact that it was shining down onto a huge reflective gemstone of some kind that was on top of a pedestal, reflecting the light in all directions.

The light lever was still kind of dim, which was probably why they hadn't seen it from inside the tunnel on the way down, but as if this wasn't enough, the two agents were really left in awe by what else the chamber contained. Unlike the cove and tunnel, this place was filled with ancient looking structures that appeared to have been carved right from the stone itself, beginning with the set of stairs that led down into the chamber from where the tunnel ended. The floor of the chamber was smooth and carved into square sections that appear like grout on a tile floor, with carved sections of wall built up around the gem, all leading to the back of the chamber…

Stretching from floor to ceiling, the whole back wall was carved to resemble pillars with elaborate carved reliefs of different images, all centered around a large set of red stone double doors that was at the top of a very tall staircase as if it was the entrance to a temple or some other really important place. There was no sign of the plague doctor in the chamber, and those red doors were the only other way out, meaning that the two of them had to enter the temple in order to catch her.


	25. Chapter 25 From Above

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Twenty Five: From Above**

"I had no idea that such a place existed here." Sheva commented, her words echoing off the stone walls. "My ancient ancestors once lived in places like this, which demonstrated their wealth as well as their faith to the old gods… it hurts me to see them living is such poverty now."

Scattered among the walls and carved stones, there were pieces of wooden scaffolding, which was basically the trunks of small trees that were tied together to form platforms that were mostly rotted away by now. They would have needed something like that to reach the higher areas while carving, Chris thought as they reached the bottom of the staircase, and he also wondered why if all of this stuff was hidden down there, probably along with a bunch of other places hidden throughout Africa, why the people hadn't tried to reclaim them?

Either way, maybe after this mission was over and the plague doctor was captures, they could report the location of this place to the government, since the people of the Kijuju Autonomous Zone deserved to have their history, but for right now catching Irving's partner and finding out what she knew was the only priority. None of the old history of Africa was going to mean a damn thing to anyone if Uroboros managed to… do whatever it was designed for, which he was pretty sure was bad for everyone, not just this part of the world.

"It kind of looks like this place wasn't finished." The young woman continued, looking at one of the many pillars that lined both sides of the long staircase. "See how some of the pillars up there have an archway between them, but these ones don't? Do you think maybe this place had to be abandoned in a hurry way back… what was that?"

Chris had been just about to reply with his own opinions about what happened to the people building this old temple or whatever it was, when he was stopped by a strange squeaking sound that echoed a little bit before fading away. As strange as it was to hear a sound like that, since there was nothing around them that looked like it would make such a noise, but then it came again while the whole chamber started to get darker. This was strange, because the only way for the place to get dark was for something to be blocking the light, so the Agent looked up…

At first he didn't understand what he was seeing; a large black shape that had not been there before, blocking almost a quarter of the chamber's skylight, but then the thing moved… starting to crawl itself the rest of the way inside, and that was when Chris realized where he had heard that strange squeaking sound before. It was only yesterday, in fact, while he and Sheva were traveling through Kijuju City's old mine, and it was only out of reflex that he was able to grab the young woman and pull her behind one of the decorative walls before the thing dropped down.

Well, it didn't exactly drop, falling only a few meters once clear of the sunroof, and then spreading its huge bat like wings to glide down while the chamber's dim lighting went back up to its normal level. Circling the whole place a couple times on the way down like it was a vulture in search of a dead carcass, the Agent held his hand over Sheva's mouth to keep her from making any noise that might attract the thing, since he knew from the last encounter how bat like the thing really was. But was it really the same creature from the old mine?

It definitely looked like the same one, with the front half being mostly a giant bat with the rear half looking mostly like the tail of a segmented insect, but it couldn't have been the same one, could it? Actually, he wasn't sure what thought was more unsettling; the possibility of there being more than one of those bat things, or that the same one had somehow managed to track him down over such a great distance. Nah, it couldn't have been the same one, but that didn't make the monster any less dangerous as it landed on the other side of the chamber and began moving around.

"This thing's nearly blind, but it's got _great _hearing." Chris whispered quietly right into her ear while taking his hand off the young woman's mouth. "We can't go back, so we're gonna have to sneak up the stairs without making a sound, okay?"

"Okay." Sheva whispered back, trying to keep herself from breathing too heavily. "Just… give me a moment."

Back in the old mine near Kijuju City, the other bat monster had dropped right on top of her from the ceiling, and since Chris was going to be having nightmares for years about just having to fight the thing off, he could only imagine how traumatic it had been for her. The monster was squeaking and clicking, constantly looking up into the air while sniffing around as if trying to locate its prey through echo-location, but the good news was that it was all the way on the other side of the chamber, so he could afford to wait until the young woman was ready.

Once she had composed herself, both of them took a deep breath while carefully stepping out from behind the decorative wall, and now the long staircase seemed like it was a hundred miles away. The monster had its back to them, investigating the other side of the chamber, which was probably why its big ears hadn't picked up their movement, so the Agent kept going while watching the ground for things that might make noise. So far he had avoided stepping on stone rubble and pieces of broken wood from the scaffolding, letting out a quiet sigh of relief when he finally stepped onto the stairs... only to have part of the edge break off.

Maybe it was because of how good the acoustics inside the chamber were, but when that piece of carved stone broke off underneath his heel, it crumbled and dropped to the floor with a lot louder of a noise than it should have. Suddenly the monster shrieked from behind, and since it was the only weapon he had to defend himself with, Chris spun around with the flare gun ready, and pulled the trigger. _BOOM_! Having forgotten how fast the monster was, all the Agent saw of the bat creature was a close up look at its fangs before it and everything around them vanished in a flash of red light, and now the monster was shrieking as if in pain, but all he could see was a red blur from being so close to the explosion.

"Run!" Sheva screamed, pulling his arm after something heavy crashed to the ground. "Chris, run!"

Not questioning the urgency in her voice, especially when it now seemed like the whole chamber was vibrating itself apart, so he allowed her to lead him along while stumbling blindly up the long staircase behind her. _Thud! Thud! Thud!_ Something was crashing to the ground behind him, making the Agent try to run faster due to fear that the whole chamber was collapsing around them, and… and damn the staircase seemed to go up forever as he kept stumbling along toward the door.

Suddenly there was a wall, along with a flash of surprise and pain when Chris ran right into it, then Sheva screamed before one last _thud_ of something crashing down right next to them… and then all was quiet. Well, they weren't dead, but the Agent was still having trouble seeing, so the young woman put some water from her canteen into his eyes, and it seemed to help, although several more minutes passed before he could see anything clearly. When things finally did come into focus, Chris got a better picture of what happened when he saw that it wasn't the chamber itself that had collapsed, just all of the pillars surrounding the stairway that had fallen over.

Way down at the bottom of the stairs, the bat creature's wing could be seen sticking out from under a couple of them, so nearest he could figure what happened was that the monster had been just as disoriented after the flare went off as he had, and it must have ran backwards into one of the pillars and knocked it over. The good news was that the creature wasn't moving, so hopefully it was dead, but now it was gonna be a lot harder to get out of this place if they ended up having to backtrack once they caught the plague doctor.

"Are you all right?" Sheva asked as he kept looking around. "How are your eyes?"

"Better." Chris replied when she helped him to his feet. "Have you tried the door yet?"

She hadn't, and apparently wasn't in a hurry to after being chased by that monster, so they waited for a bit just to calm down again, before trying the door… which actually opened pretty easily considering its age and size. Unlike the rotted wood that made up the broken scaffolding down below, the red colored double doors were in remarkably good condition, allowing the one they pushed to slowly swing open, revealing that this place was a lot bigger than they originally thought.

"My God… it's like a whole underground city." The Agent commented as they stepped through the door. "It must have taken _decades_ to build all this."

"Maybe even longer than that." Sheva replied, left in awe just like he was at the sight before them. "How are we _ever _going to find that woman in a place like this?"

Where he had been expecting to find a large place of worship, beyond the red double doors was more like a lost city, with many stone roads and pathways carved throughout the chamber, which was even larger than the previous one, like the one with the crushed bat monster was nothing but the old city gates. There were sections where water flowed through canals and small aqueducts, and like in the previous chamber there was a large reflective gemstone that disbursed light from above… wait, actually there were several of them, each placed high up on a carved pillar, and each positioned directly beneath one of the many small holes in the ceiling.

The light level in there was better than the last chamber, but for this place to be so large, it was like the whole mountain had been hollowed out in order to create this hidden city, making the Agent grateful that they had come during daylight hours, or else it would have been really hard to navigate this place with only that flashlight. Hold on, there was something else, too… _fire_. Yeah, there were lit torches scattered around the city, as well as larger pyres that were guarded by… holy shit, they were guarded by more people from the village.

Covered in ash and war paint like the others, villagers carrying spears could be seen walking around the larger fires, but these ones weren't stumbling around or just standing there confused like the ones near the oil field. In fact, they seemed to be quite well organized, and if they weren't part of the Type 3 trials, that meant they were most likely infected with Type 2 Plagas, meaning that they were going to be a lot harder to get past without incident.


	26. Chapter 26 Power of the Sun

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Twenty Six: Power of the Sun**

"This place is built like a maze." Sheva commented as they surveyed the area as best they could from there. "Even if we can avoid the villagers, how on Earth are we _ever_ going to figure out where the plague doctor went?"

Chris wasn't the best tracker in the world, but in this case there were a few things that they had going for them, beginning with the fact that the villagers weren't aware of their presence. This gave him the time he needed to thoroughly examine the area, with the first thing that the Agent noticed being all the dirt that was on the carved stone floor. It must have been constantly falling into the chamber from the holes above… huh, wondered if anyone ever fell in by accident… and this dirt allowed him to see footprints.

There were a few sets of them, each heading off in different directions, but there were two obvious facts that allowed him to narrow it down. The first was that since he hadn't seen any women or children around inside the city so far, the plague doctor's prints were going to be the smallest ones around. The second fact was that every villager the Agent had seen so far was barefoot, while their new target was wearing boots, once again making it easy to spot hers out of the group. It wasn't a perfect trail, but it was a start, so the two agents began moving down the corridor as silently as they could.

Every once in a while they would encounter a patrol of villagers, but the infected were loud in both movement and how they chatted back and forth, so each group was pretty easy to avoid so far. A couple times Chris got nervous when he couldn't see any more of the plague doctor's footprints, but each time he just kept going in that same general direction, and luckily another print would appear in the next dirt pile. The bad part was that as they moved farther into the city, more and more villagers were around, so it was getting harder to sneak around.

"In here." Chris whispered, pulling her into some kind of storage shack just as another patrol came around the corner. "Get down."

They entered the tiny building through the open doorway, and then ducked down below the window as the group of three infected passed by, with both of them holding their breath and pressing up against the low was as flat as they could while the villagers stopped for a moment to grumble something at each other… before the two agents were able to relax when the group started walking again. There had to be a better way to go about this, since it was getting harder to sneak around… what they really needed were some real weapons, and… hey, maybe there was something in this room that they could use.

Peeking out the window to make sure that the corridor outside was clear for now, Chris moved over to the other side of the room where a bunch of supplies were stacked. There he discovered a bunch of burlap bags filled with rotting stuff that was maybe once food, some broken pottery that might have been for holding water at one time but was long since evaporated, and… a long iron spear. It was just like the ones that some of the villagers were carrying, and it was better than nothing, so the Agent picked it up and tried to hold the thing properly while Sheva tilted her head to the side.

"That's an interesting choice for an American." The young woman said, putting her hands on her hips. "Do you even know how to _use_ one of those?"

"Yeah, sure." He replied, trying to adjust his grip. "Pointy end goes into the bad guy, right?"

Rolling her eyes, Sheva stepped forward and told him to _stick to your guns, cowboy_, before taking the weapon and demonstrating the proper way to hold it at the ready position. Well, if she really wanted the spear it was fine with him, since Chris already had the flare gun with five cartridges left, although now it was up to him to carry the flashlight since her weapon needed two hands. There was enough light in this place to not even need it, so the Agent put it in one of his pouches as they left the storage room.

Honestly, Chris was trying to avoid the parts of this chamber that passed by the large pyres or reflective gemstones, since that was where most of the villagers were, but the options were running out, since the plague doctor had apparently waltzed right through the center of the city as if she owned the place. This meant that the new target was probably carrying a control plaga on her, which hopefully she wouldn't use once they cornered her, but suddenly the Agent's thoughts were interrupted by some kind of commotion coming from around the next corner.

"_Kuleta sadaka mbele_!" A loud voice ordered. "_Mleteni kwa Liza_!"

The voice was coming from a villager in a large wooden headdress who was standing right next to one of the reflective gemstones, although this one was smaller and set into some kind of decorative alter that looked kind of like those telescopes at national landmarks. As soon as he said those words, there was a scream that echoed through the chamber as two villagers dragged a woman into view, bringing her in front of the chief or whatever he was, and forcing her to kneel down on the corridor that was below him.

"Chris, I don't think that woman's infected." Sheva whispered as the chief continued his speech. "He's saying that they see her as an outsider for denying the gift, and now she is to be offered to the ancient god, Liza. Chris, we have to do something, they're going to _sacrifice_ her to the old Sun God."

"That's just what the Ganados did to anyone immune to Las Plagas." Chris replied, checking to see that his flare gun was reloaded. "Don't worry, we're not gonna let this happen."

In order to perform the sacrifice, the chief probably had to come down and slit the woman's throat or something equally barbaric, so all the Agent had to do was wait until he was coming down from the alter before firing the flare, preferably when he was next to the largest number of infected, but his plan came with both good and bad news. The good news was that Chris had been right about the chief performing the sacrifice himself, but he was _way off_ as far as the method used to sacrifice someone to the old Sun God.

Instead of walking down from the alter as soon as his speech was finished, the chief stepped behind the reflective gemstone and tilted it ever so slightly until it glowed with the sun's light… before erupting outward in a beam of concentrated yellow energy. Focused into a laser beam that was about as big around as a beer can, the temperature was instantly raised throughout the whole area when the beam struck the carved stone floor, to the point where Chris was sweating as badly as he had been in Kijuju City… and then it swept forward down the corridor.

Kicking up little bursts of flame as it traveled across the stone, and leaving a black scorch mark in its wake, the beam went right toward the restrained woman, who didn't even have time to scream again before the yellow energy passed right through her… cleaving the sacrifice neatly in half while causing each side of her body to burst into flames as they fell to the floor. Now the chief and all the villagers cheered while jumped up and down, and the Agent knew that it wasn't their fault, not really… it was only because they were infected… but he couldn't allow such a sickening display to happen again.

_Fwoosh-BOOM_! It might have been too late to save that woman, but maybe he could spare any other non-infected survivors her fate, so waited until the chief was no longer holding the gemstone, before stepping out of cover and firing the flare gun right at him. It was a lot harder to aim this kind of weapon than a standard firearm, because his aim was slightly off, not that it really mattered with an explosive, since it went off right behind him, anyway.

Striking the large pyre back there and apparently hitting something flammable, the whole thing blasted apart into a spray of fire and pieces of wood that knocked the chief down onto the corridor below, raining burning wood down onto all the others… while the reflective gemstone was tilted so that it started to glow again. Now it was the villagers' turn to scream when the light was focused once again, making them burst into flames as the laser went down the corridor… in multiple directions?

One of the falling pieces of wood must have cracked the gem or something, because now there were five different beams, one moving down the corridor like normal while the other two swept across walls and other paths… only to come back the other way as the unmanned gemstone alter kept swinging back and forth. One of the beams was strong enough to blast right through the wall Chris and Sheva were hiding behind, forcing them to dive out into the corridor in order to avoid getting torched, but then they had to roll out of the way when another beam came too close.

Now it seemed like there were even more beams, and they were all sweeping sideways as if the alter was slowly spinning because of another hit. Either way, the yellow heat beams were everywhere, forcing the two agents into an acrobatic obstacle course of rolling, jumping, and ducking their way down the corridor. Their only hope was to get past the alter where the beams weren't able to hit, and there were a couple close calls where Sheva almost got hit when she fell down, but Chris was able to grab her by the hand and drag her out of the way just in time.

Some of the other villagers were starting to notice the commotion, running into the corridor in front and from behind with spears raised to kill the outsiders, but they weren't paying attention to the heat beams. Chris couldn't help but marvel at how advanced the people who built this city must have been to have such a weapon… a weapon that was now incinerating the pursuing villagers while the outsiders got away. All around them the attacking infected were cut down, realizing only too late what was happening, but this allowed the two agents to make one last jump in order to get out of the gemstone's range.

Hitting the carved stone floor and rolling to a stop against the next wall, Chris and Sheva scrambled to get out of sight before the next group of villagers came to investigate, but luckily this was still the way they needed to go, since the first thing the Agent saw after rolling to a stop was another one of the plague doctor's footprints in the dirt next to his face. A few more of the infected were heard crying out as they were incinerated, and hopefully this would give them all the cover they needed in order to catch up with their enemy.


	27. Chapter 27 The Fountain

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Twenty Seven: The Fountain**

It was a good thing that the plague doctor had made no effort whatsoever to cover her tracks, because as Chris and Sheva continued their exploration of the ancient city, they found dozens of branching pathways and corridors that looked like they led into separate areas of the city entirely. Most of the villagers in the immediate area had been distracted by the incident with the gemstone altar, allowing the two BSAA agents continue moving their way down the corridors, crossing a small bridge over a flowing canal, and then their new target's footprints ending in front of a stone slab.

This slab was bigger than a door, appearing different than the other carved stone around it, since its coloring was slightly off, and although there was no visible way to open it as far as levers or switches, there was another one of those reflective gemstones mounted in the wall next to it. At first the Agent was at a loss as to what they were supposed to do, but then when he was looking around he saw that there was another one of those movable altars on top of a nearby staircase.

"So… do we have to reflect light at the gem?" He asked, looking back and forth between the altar and the slab. "Seems like a pretty dangerous way to open a door."

"Well, I can't see any other way to open it, can you?" The young woman replied. "Here, you keep watch, and I'll focus the beam."

Moving well out of the possible path of the beam, Chris positioned himself just around the corner from the pathway they had used to get there so that he could watch for approaching threats, while Sheva quickly made her way over toward the altar. She had to go down another pathway and around the corner, with the Agent getting nervous for the few seconds he couldn't see her for, until she came back into view as she went up the stairs. All right, so far so good, he thought as she reached the altar, now all she had to do was aim it at the stone in the wall, and they could be on their way.

Like it had done before with the chief, the reflective stone on the pedestal began to glow after she figured out how to aim it properly, and then the temperature in the area rose dramatically when the focused yellow beam was sent into the carved floor. The young woman must have been worried about accidently hitting him, since she aimed the weapon very slowly until it moved up the wall and into the other gem… causing the whole chamber to rumble a bit as the slab slowly started to raise upward.

Incredible, Chris thought as it made its way up inch by inch, the ancient people who built this city must've figured out how to use the sun's light with those gemstones not only as a sacrificial weapon, but also as a primitive form of electricity in order to open the pathway ahead. Of course, the chamber was vibrating pretty loudly as this was happening, and it didn't take long before the Agent's thoughts were interrupted as the voices of angry villagers were heard approaching.

"Sheva!" He tried to yell quietly. "Sheva, they're coming!"

He wasn't sure whether or not the young woman could hear him over the rumbling of the chamber, but when he took another look down the corridor at the approaching threat, Chris couldn't help gasping when he saw that this wasn't just another small patrol. In fact, there were _dozens_ of them running down the pathway, snarling and yelling angrily with spears raised, so the Agent loaded another cartridge into his flare gun and fired a shot right at the infected.

_Fwoosh-BOOM_! The front most members of the group shrieked in reaction to the bright flash of red light, causing everyone else to run into them when they stopped, and now at least a few seconds had been bought before they could attack again. It was great that the plagas parasites didn't like intense light, but Chris only had three cartridges left, and the hostiles were already recovering. The ones who had tripped were getting up, now even angrier as they stepped over the ones who had been blinded, and they were going to be right on top of him and…

Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of light and heat as the focused yellow beam passed right over his head, making the infected burst into flames as it swept all the way back down the pathway. In less than a second the attacking horde was reduced to burning pieces of human remains, and as soon as the threat was over, Sheva brought the beam back over to the slab so that it could resume opening. This time there were no more attackers, and as soon as the slab was open all the way, the young woman came back down the stairs.

Without her there to aim the beam at the gemstone anymore, the slab very slowly began to lower itself back down, giving the two of them more than enough time to get through before it closed, and then finding themselves at the start of a long tunnel that had a slight incline. Sheva was quiet now, though, holding her spear tightly while looking very tense, and the only thing he could think of to say was that he understood how hard this all was for her, especially being forced to kill her own people during this whole nightmare.

"Chris, these aren't my people anymore, I understand that." The young woman replied sadly. "Viruses and plagas, they don't care what color your skin is, and… and I'm sure you had to kill a lot of infected _white_ people back in Raccoon City."

Yeah… that was true, most of the zombies he had encountered back at the Spencer Estate had… _probably_ been white, it was hard to tell with the decaying flesh and all that. But she was right, if an outbreak occurred in Norway, most of the infected would be white, if one occurred in China, the infected would be Asian, or they would be mostly Hispanic in Mexico, and so on. What really got Chris mad was how Irving had chosen Africa for these experiments because he believed no one cared about the people there, but at the end of the day one human life was just as valuable as any other... except for bioterrorists like Irving… fuck them.

This pathway was getting darker and darker the farther they moved from the main chamber, but then it started to get bright again around the next turn, and the two of them saw that there was literally a light at the end of the tunnel. Was it sunlight? Were they about to reach the surface? If so, then it was going to be a lot harder to track down the plague doctor, unless the ground out there was soft enough for her to leave footprints, but once the two of them reached the end of the tunnel, they found that this was not the case.

The tunnel opened up into a small, rounded chamber that was dominated mostly by a decorative fountain carved from stone, set on top of a small natural spring. Sunlight poured in from a large hole in the chamber's ceiling, shining down onto hundreds of large pink and yellow flowers that filled up the sections on the fountains multiple levels. At first the Agent wondered how flowers or any plants at all could survive way down there, but he guessed that with the light from the sun and the water from the spring that it was enough to keep them going.

Elaborate symbols were carved all over the fountain as if this place were of some great significance at one time, and stairs allowed the whole thing to be accessed without disturbing the plants, but that wasn't what caught Chris's attention. Sure, these were probably pretty special flowers to be given all this attention by the ancient people, but that was nothing compared to what he saw on the ground near the side of the fountain. It was a metal rubbish bin, partially rusted and left tilted on its side for all of the detreated waste products to spill out, but when the Agent rubbed the dirt off the front of the container, he couldn't help gasp in shock.

"_Umbrella_?!" He exclaimed, looking at the old company's red and white emblem. "What the hell was Umbrella doing _here_?!"

Thankfully, Chris had not seen that logo in almost ten years, even since the pharmaceutical giant cornered the market on bioterror went belly up back in 2001, but there it was… just sitting there like discovering an old photograph of your ex-girlfriend. Seriously though, what the hell was Umbrella doing in the middle of an ancient underground African city? They couldn't have been involved in the plagas trials, since the parasites hadn't even been _discovered_ until after the company was long gone, but… but of course there was more… there was _always_ more to it.

Now that he had gotten halfway around the fountain, the Agent was able to see what was on the other side, and the other half of the small chamber was not what he expected. For one thing, there were electric lights hung up on the wall, like… really old ones with rounded covers on top to protect the single bulb underneath… and they were turned on. A few worn out looking green tents were along the wall next to a set of double doors that were definitely _not_ of ancient African construction, being that thy were metal and had glass windows built in... but the tents had the Tricell logo on them.

"What would Tricell be doing down here?" Sheva asked, examining the old tents. "If this place was an old Umbrella site, then it should have been reported to the BSAA so that a team could go through and clear out any hazards. Chris, half the world should know about this place by now?"

"Unless Tricell didn't _want _anyone to know." He replied, looking back over at the metal bin. "These tents look pretty old, do you think… do you think that at one time Tricell and Umbrella were working together. Do you remember when Umbrella's whole board of directors vanished right before the company started collapsing? Do you think… that they just moved their offices to Tricell?"

It was a frightening thought, especially since Tricell had made a name for itself by trying to undo all the damage done by their biggest competitor, or at least that was the claim. But if they were just as crooked as Umbrella, then why would they give so much extra funding to the BSAA, without expecting someone to find out about all this eventually? It seemed like every time they got an answer during this mission, it just brought up more questions… and now the only way forward was through a set of really old looking metal doors, into a place that was once used by Umbrella.


	28. Chapter 28 Tick tick tick

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Twenty Eight: Tick… tick… tick…**

Stepping through the old metal doors was like leaping forward in time by several hundred years, but falling just shy of being modern. Unlike the carved stone architecture of the ancient ruins, the walls and ceiling of this old Umbrella facility were made of concrete blocks, while the floor was smooth, and the whole thing was illuminated by old fashioned metal light fixtures, making Chris think of the submarine bases in those old _James Bond_ movies. The place was dusty, though, and as they began to explore the empty rooms that lined the sides of the main corridor, it became obvious that this place hadn't been used in a while.

From the kind of metal desks and tables that were left inside of each room, the Agent could tell that there were once computers and other kinds of equipment placed on them, most of which had probably been plugged into the outlets that were spaced out on the conduit that ran along the walls. Like a lot of secret Umbrella facilities that were abandoned in a hurry during the company's fall, this place had been picked clean of anything useful, but the strange part was that not only were the lights still on, but the air wasn't nearly as stale as Chris expected.

Cool air was flowing out of the room's vent, with the Agent just now noticing that he wasn't sweating for the first time since entering the Kijuju Autonomous Region, and there was no way that such a system could function for very long at all with no maintenance before breaking down. Old chairs and office furniture remained inside of each small room as well, with partially empty supply crates left abandoned in the corridor itself, each one with a faded Umbrella logo on the side, but no useful supplies left inside.

The corridor ended at one last door, which opened into a larger room where some functioning equipment still remained along the back wall. It was old, a bunch of monitoring equipment that beeped and ticked while keeping track of… a bunch of flowers inside of a sealed case? Stepping forward and taking a closer look, the two of them saw that all of the monitors were hooked up to examine those same flowers that had been discovered in the decorative fountain… not much was happening with them, though, at least not anything they could see through the glass.

"I'm getting the feeling that these are no ordinary flowers." Sheva commented as they looked. "I wonder what makes them so special."

"We could probably find out if the place wasn't stripped." Chris replied. "But trust me, it's never a good thing when Umbrella pays attention to something."

There wasn't anything else inside the room, and neither of them knew how to even read the data coming from the old monitors, so the two agents continued their exploration of the old facility. Another door at the other end of the room was the only way forward, so the Agent pushed it open, leading the way into a hallway that was a lot darker than the previous rooms, and there was… a strong smell of rust? A couple of the light fixtures were working, but not enough to see down the corridor, so Chris clicked on the flashlight, causing both of them to gasp at what they saw.

Long gashes were ripped across the wall in front of them, three lines looking like something had dug them right into the concrete blocks with unbelievable strength, and splattered across the nearby wall and floor was a darkened substance that might have been a liquid at one time. Based on the dark red color and the strong smell of rust that he had noticed before, it was pretty safe to say that this was blood… and that he now had a pretty good idea of why they hadn't seen anyone around the base so far.

Rounding the corner, there were more of these gashes in the walls going further down the corridor, with even more splatters of dried blood as the flashlight was moved around, but there weren't any bodies. No signs of the victims, fresh or long abandoned, nor was there any sign of the monster that did all the damage. Was it possible that this had happened a long time ago and the creature was long gone? Sure it was, but the Agent had never been that lucky in all his life, so they were a lot quieter and slower from that point on when it came to checking the side rooms.

"Chris, I don't want to sound pessimistic." Sheva whispered, closing the door once they were inside one of the small side rooms. "But those marks in the wall were _huge_, and all we have is a flare gun and a spear."

"Don't forget your Swiss army knife." Chris replied, trying to lighten the mood a little, but failing. "Sheva, if we turn back, we'll have to fight our way back through the whole ancient city again, and even if we could, then… then Irving's partner's gonna get away."

She knew that going back wasn't an option, they both did, even though the Agent was having the same doubts that she was. Did he really want to meetup with whatever had caused the massacre that happened in this place? Hell no, especially when they were so lightly armed, but maybe they would be lucky enough to avoid it. Listening with his ear against the door for anything that was moving around in the corridor, Chris slowly pulled it open, and stepped back into the hallway, constantly moving the light around as they rounded the next corner into a larger area that was filled with small cages.

Stacked up on top of each other in the center of the room like one of those displays in really old pet stores, the cages were almost like a divider wall, but they were all empty just like the offices. The bars on some of them looked like they had been ripped open from the outside, and there was more dried blood, but again no sign of the victims or what did it, even with some of the larger cages around the room's perimeter having been broken into as well. So what was this place? A holding area for research specimens?

_Tick… tick… tick_… suddenly a new sound reached the Agent's ears, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as a shadow began to approach from farther into the specimen holding area. Motioning for the young woman to follow him, they ducked behind the partial wall of cages, where hopefully they would be get a look at their new companion through the bars without being noticed. _Tick… tick… tick_… it felt like the approaching shadow was taking forever to come into view, but once it did, the wait suddenly didn't seem so bad.

Walking, or maybe crawling on the ground on all fours, the ticking sound came from the long claws on each of its limbs when they made contact with the concrete floor, and the whole thing was light red colored, looking almost like it had been skinned alive at one point. The head was nothing but a drooling mouth full of sharp teeth; no visible ears or eyes, but the thing's brain was completely exposed, like… it was just sitting there on top of the skull for the world to see. Advancing forward again, the monster had its head stretched upward while breathing rapidly as if trying to smell the world around it, but then the thing hissed and jumped backwards after walking into a loose cage.

Watching the monster intently in order to learn as much as he could about it before any kind of confrontation happened, Chris noticed how surprised the creature had been after bumping into the cage, and he wondered if the thing might have been blind since it had no visible eyes. Apparently, Sheva was getting the same idea, since the young woman was now very slowly and quietly stepping out from behind the cage wall and then aiming carefully before throwing the iron spear.

As if she had been using such a weapon for her entire life, Sheva's aim was perfect as she sent the sharpened tip of the head right into the monster's brain, but instead of dying like almost anything else, the creature reacted by unleashing its tongue. Shrieking and hissing as it jumped back and removed the weapon by swatting at it with a front claw, the monster opened its mouth, sending its incredibly long tongue shooting outward like a frog, but instead of sticking to the section of the cage wall that it came into contact with, sparks flew as the sharpened end cut through the bars like nothing.

Several of the cages were thrown away from the group as a result of this, forcing Chris and Sheva to leap out of the way as the monster leapt forward as soon as its tongue had retracted, destroying even more of the cage wall as it angrily tried to find the unseen enemy that attacked it. Scrambling to get out of the way as the creature knocked down the last of the cage wall, the noise of them collapsing must have masked his location, because the monster flew right over him with its next leap, putting three new tears across the concrete wall when it landed.

Instead of falling to the floor though, the thing stuck to the wall and started crawling along the smooth surface like an insect. Having enough sense not to move again, the creature stopped as well once all the noise had gone quiet, raising its head up to smell the area again, and providing the two agents with an opportunity to escape as long as they could move silently toward the other end of the room. So he got up to his hands and knees as quietly as he could, standing up and then turning around to start stepping over the fallen cages… just in time to see that Sheva was partially buried under some of them.

The young woman wasn't trapped, but with the way that the small cages had landed on top of her, there was no way that she could move without making more noise. Seeming content to sniff the air from its perch on the wall, the Agent changed directions, stepping over the fallen cages on the floor in order to get to Sheva while the monster turned around, and now it was walking back onto the floor while he struggled to lift each cage off her while not making a sound. The cages weren't heavy, but their design was so loose that the slightest jarring movement would rattle them… and now the creature was getting closer.

He moved some of them without noise, but there wasn't any more time since the monster's tongue was starting to move through the air as it got closer to them, so Chris made the only move he could. Taking the flare gun out and aiming at the creature, the Agent waited until its mouth was open again before pulling the trigger, and the monster shrieked so loudly that it almost drowned out the sound of the cartridge exploding. Now that he was getting better at aiming such a weapon, he was able to fire the shot so that it went right down the creature's throat.

Stumbling backwards so quickly that it fell over, the monster flew into a fit of rage while red light and smoke poured from its mouth, leaping in every direction and trying to slash at anything it could get its claws on. Thankfully, this allowed Chris to help the young woman to her feet without worrying about the noise from the cages, and then they ran the only way they could, which was through a larger holding area where the monster was probably contained until it broke out by making that huge hole in the glass.

Now the remains of its victims, both human and animal were found, as if this was the creature's den, but there was a metal door toward the back that… didn't move at all when Chris tried to shoulder it open… and now that the flare cartridge had died out, the monster was heard coming toward them again.


	29. Chapter 29 Tricell's Secrets

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Twenty Nine: Tricell's Secrets**

The door must've been locked form the other side, which made sense considering what this pen used to hold before it broke out, and there was no switch or anything that they could press in case of emergency. Chris figured that knowing Umbrella, they would probably just leave anyone who got locked in with the creature so that they could observe its abilities, but that knowledge didn't help much as the monster got closer to the glass. It appeared to have lost track of them as it wandered around near the hole, but it was only a matter of time.

"Sheva, we've gotta get out of here." Chris whispered as quietly as he could into her ear. "_Please_ tell me you know how to pick a lock."

"It's no good, there's no keyhole." She whispered back while trying not to let her voice break. "I'd have to take the whole knob off, and for that I'd need a screwdriver, or…

Or a _Swiss army knife_! Ha, Chris mentally yelled with joy, he knew that the random tool the young woman scoffed at earlier would come in handy at some point, but the monster slowly got closer while she took it out of her pouch, and now it was just about to discover the hole in the glass. There were two cartridges left for his flare gun, but the amount of noise that would be generated by trying to reload it would probably lead the creature right to him, so he did the only other thing that he could think of.

Reaching down and grabbing a large bone from the remains of one of the thing's victims… probably a human by the looks of it, and tossed it through the hole in the glass so that it flew right over the monster's head. _Clang_! Striking one of the fallen metal cages behind it, the creature roared as it turned around with tongue flailing around like a whip to strike that exact spot. Cages were tossed around the room while the creature went wild with its tongue and claws, destroying some of the cages and putting several new marks into the walls... but then everything quieted down as the monster resumed its search.

Meanwhile, Sheva had gotten one of the screws out of the doorknob, and was working on the second, but because of the tool's length and how close the hole was to the knob, the process was slow. Come on, come on, hurry it up, the Agent thought in his head while picking up another bone to throw… but this time the monster ignored the sound of it hitting another cage completely. Aw crap, _of course_ it had to be smart, he thought as its long tongue started to feel around on the floor in front of it… while the monster crawled its way through the hole in the glass back into the pen.

Baring its teeth now, and drooling heavily while slowly walking right toward the two agents, Chris was getting ready to risk trying to reload the flare gun, when the young woman next to him suddenly pulled the door open. Opening inward into the pen, the Agent shoved Sheva forward through it at the same time that the monster shrieked, and if he had been even half a second slower the monster might have cleaved him in half instead of sparking against the metal door when it was pulled shot again.

Now that the doorknob was removed, there was no way to lock the door again, but thankfully the creature didn't seem to understand that it opened inward, meaning that its savage attacks just kept the door shut so that the two agents could get away. There were more side doors going down this next corridor, but fuck exploration, because it was only a matter of time before _SMASH_! From behind them the sound of a metal door being completely destroyed echoed down the hallway, causing Chris and Sheva to stop in their tracks… now forced to silently tiptoe along the concrete floor while the creature's claws ticked along behind them.

Now that it had lost them again, the monster would take a few steps before raising its head up to sniff the air, and then repeat the process, allowing it to keep pace with the two agents as it felt its way along the hallway after them. As much as the Agent wanted to sprint away in the hopes of finding a way to escape, the speed that he had seen the monster move at while going after a target made him think that this was a bad idea. So the world's slowest high speed chase resumed, with both agents trying to move as quickly as they could without making noise… with the monster starting to gain on them.

Sheva was starting to breathe rapidly again, having to put one hand over her mouth in order to keep the noise down, so Chris took her hand and that seemed to help… along with the fact that there was another door at the end of this hallway. And it wasn't just any door, it was an elevator, but they were going to have to move faster if they wanted to be able to push the call button and get inside before the monster reached them. That is, unless he could find a way to distract it…

"Keep going." The Agent whispered into her ear, urging the young woman to go forward. "And get ready to run."

The look on her face said that she didn't understand, but the young woman kept heading toward the elevator anyway while Chris quietly turned the latch on an office door… before throwing it open as loudly as he could. Slam! The noise echoed, drawing the attention of the monster as it roared and sprinted in the direction it came from, running right into the office, and then shrieking in rage when he pulled the door shut behind it.

"Go!" Chris yelled as he started to run. "Hit the button!"

Sheva was ahead of him, so she had pressed the call button before he got there, but the car had still not arrived by the time that the creature started clawing its way out of the trap. The office door wasn't made of metal, so it easily splintered apart under the power of the monster's claws, but thankfully the elevator doors started to open with a soft _ding_. Getting inside the car and pushing the only button available, the monster finished braking down the office door and ran toward them just as the doors started to close, forcing Chris to respond with the flare gun that he had reloaded after closing the office door.

_Fwoosh-BOOM_! Firing the cartridge through the closing doors, the hallway was illuminated with a flash of red light that went off just in front of the monster, forcing it to stop, and it was a good thing too because they would have never escaped if it had been able to leap at that moment. Hearing it let out one last roar of rage before the doors sealed, the elevator started down, and Chris was surprised when the young woman suddenly hugged him tightly. She was terrified by what just happened, as was he, but they had survived, so… oh what the hell, there was nothing wrong with a hug.

"How are you not falling apart right now?" Sheva asked when the embrace ended. "Is this kind of thing normal to you? Is… is this what your missions are always like?"

"Well, _some_ of them have gone bad, sure." The Agent replied. "I mean, I've never had to go through an _underground city_ before, but…everything's going to be all right. Just watch, one day we're going to look back on this and laugh."

In response she made a comment about laughing from her cell in the _looney bin_, and there wasn't a lot he could say back to it because the whole talk was bullshit. The Spencer Estate had happened more than ten years ago, and Chris had yet to find any part of it funny… nor was he amused by Rockfort Island, or the Queen Zenobia… at least a few good memories came from Antarctica. Not the ones about Wesker beating up Claire, but… watching Alexia thrash that sunglasses waring prick was great, and then…

_Ding_, startled by the sound of the elevator doors opening again, the Agent hadn't even been aware of the car stopping before a much brighter light washed over them. Taking a second to load the last cartridge into the flare gun before stepping out into the whiteness, Chris found himself in awe at what he saw as his eyes adjusted. Just like the Umbrella base felt like a time jump from the ancient city, he now had that same feeling again as he and Sheva stepped into the modern age of white steel and hard plastic construction.

This chamber was bigger than all the others so far, shaped like a big round room that went up to a brilliant light source, and then down further than their eyes could see. The elevator doors had opened up onto a catwalk, and now the two agents were holding onto the white metal guardrails as they approached a central platform that was almost as wide as the room itself. Other than that, the chamber's dominant feature was the pods… large metal units that glowed with orange light from inside a Plexiglas window, and all of them mounted onto the walls so that as many could be packed in as possible.

"Didn't we see some of these on Irving's PDA?" The young woman asked, squinting to try and see them better in the light. "There must be hundreds… _thousands_ of them… what do you think they're for?"

He was about to answer that he didn't know, but was interrupted by the sharp whistle of an alarm going off as a spinning yellow light activated on top of one of the higher pods. The alarm only lasted for a few seconds, and then there was a burst of pressurized gas escaping as the metal container began to open. A bunch of water poured out as the main cover opened, revealing that a person was inside, but… they looked awful… malnourished and with discolored skin as the restraints holding them into the pod released, and they… fell out?

Yeah, as soon as the restraints released, the malnourished man tumbled out of the pod, falling past the platform and then vanishing into the abyss below. He must have already been dead, because the poor bastard didn't make a sound on the way down, but… oh shit, did that mean that all of these pods had a person inside? Looking around at the platform again, he saw that it was dominated by a large control computer that had the Tricell logo displayed larger than life on the monitor… so what the hell were they playing at? If all this really was Tricell's doing, then how was it possible for them to get this many people without anyone noticing? What did they do, kidnap them from all over the world?

Rushing over to the control computer, which turned out to be more like a library's card catalogue than anything else, the Agent found that not only was the system unlocked, but that he was also able to scroll through a list of names of the people inside each pod, along with age, gender, country of origin, all kinds of data. So he took the easy route and typed _Valentine, Jillian_ into the search box, with an hourglass icon appearing while the machine's inventory was searched, and then he gasped when a single message appeared on the screen:

_SUBJECT LOCATED_


	30. Chapter 30 Excella Gionne

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Thirty: Excella Gionne**

As soon as the search was completed, the platform's computer system brought up the requested file, and it was her. Chris still didn't understand why Jill's hair was blonde all of a sudden, but the important thing was that the image that accompanied her file was the exact same one that had been stored on Irving's PDA, so of course the Agent clicked _YES_ when asked if he wanted to access the selected pod. Now there was a loud _hiss_ as something was felt unlocking with a hard thud underneath their feet, and then the whole platform began to move.

He should have guessed that the room's platform was also a service lift, since how the hell else would the people in charge of these experiments be able to get to each container? Heading down into the lower levels of this pod chamber or whatever it was called, Sheva put her hand over her mouth when they saw that there were even more of these pods than had been visible from above, so yeah… the victims here had to be from all over the world… making Chris wonder how many of their faces would match missing person's reports if there was the time to examine them.

Obviously Headquarters was going to be made aware of all this as soon as the two of them got back to the surface, since a satellite phone was pretty much useless underground… and then the platform stopped. That same hissing sound was produced as something beneath their feet locked into place, and now the two agents were on a different floor of the facility, complete with an access door attached by catwalk like the one they had used to exit the Umbrella part, just on a different side.

Now a spinning yellow light activated above one of the pods on the wall like it had done before, but instead of dumping out the contents, an arm extended out from in the wall behind it. Slowly the pod was brought over to the edge of the platform, where pressurized gas and water were released as the container's outer covering was opened to reveal… nothing. As the heated steam cleared, Chris saw that the restraints and safety bar for holding the subject were in place, but there was no sign of his old partner.

"No… God damn it, no!" He yelled, punching the side of the pod. "Where is she?!"

Sheva had no way to answer that question, so the Agent turned and started walking back toward the platform's computer, figuring that maybe Jill had been moved to another pod or something. So were these people experimenting on her too, just like the poor man who had been dumped out? Had some insane Tricell scientist checked her out like a book in the damn library, and was torturing his old partner at that very moment? There had to be a way to find out, maybe the access logs or supervisor reports… but that was going to have to wait as the door on the other end of the walkway slid open.

As soon as the passageway was open, two men wearing body armor walked into the pod chamber, followed by two more, and then two more… and then two more. Quickly pressing the button on the computer that would bring the platform back to where they started, a knot formed in the Agent's stomach when a red dialogue box appeared on the screen, filled with the words _ACCESS DENIED_, and this feeling became worse when he got a good look at the approaching guards. They weren't wearing helmets, allowing Chris to see their discolored, cracked skin, and they were growling like the others as they stepped onto the platform… but unlike the other hostiles that they had seen so far… these ones were armed.

With AK-47's in their hands, the guards spread out so that the two agents were surrounded, keeping their rifles aimed while growling something in Swahili. The Agent already had his flare gun aimed, for all the good it would do them, but the fact that those infected with Type 2 Plagas could use _firearms_ was a shock to him. In addition to the body armor and rifles, each guard had a pistol holstered on his belt, as well as a few grenades as if they were expecting a war to break out.

"They want us to put up our hands." The young woman translated, doing as they said. "And he says that pink gun makes you look like a _ushoga_."

Chris didn't know what a _ushoga_ was, but he had a feeling that these guards were willing to gun them down if they didn't comply, so he dropped the flare gun before putting up his hands. As soon as he did, the infected closed in a little, growling something else that sounded almost like a warning, and then someone else walked into the pod room through the open door. Expecting another infected, the Agent was surprised when their latest visitor turned out to be a beautiful olive skinned woman wearing a low cut white dress and high heels.

"Making any sudden movements right now would be a bad idea." The woman warned in a thick Italian accent. "I'm actually surprised you made it past that old _Licker_ crawling around upstairs, but I could've _swore_ the BSAA got an order to retreat."

She didn't look or sound infected like the armed men around her, while her clothes and makeup suggested that she was in charge around here… well, that and the fact that the usually hostile infected men were ignoring her. What bothered the Agent the most was the fact that this person was aware of the order to retreat out of Kijuju, when Headquarters had just transmitted those instructions a few hours ago, meaning that she either had something to do with it, or was simply monitoring their communications… either scenario was not good.

"Who the hell are you?" Chris demanded, making sure to keep his hands up. "And where's Jill?"

"Chris, that's Excella Gionne." Sheva quietly said to him. "She's the Director of Tricell Africa… she really _is_ the one Irving was talking about."

"My, aren't _you_ a well-informed girl?" Excella asked, scoffing at them. "As for your precious _Jill_, she was no longer required for the experiments taking place in this chamber, but we can _always_ use another volunteer… put her in the pod."

Without hesitation, the nearest three armed men grabbed Sheva as soon as the orders left the woman's mouth, two of them holding her arms while the third slammed the stock of his rifle into her stomach hard enough to knock the wind out of the young woman as she bent forward. The Agent tried to help her, but quickly found himself being restrained by the three closest to him, still leaving two of the infected to guard Excella as the two agents struggled against their captors.

Chris managed to punch one in the face and shove him away to avoid being grabbed, but then his vision tilted to the side after the stock of another rifle struck him in the side of the head with a hard _whack_. This blow staggered the Agent enough for one of his assailants to kick his legs out from under him, with all three of them diving on top of him as soon as he fell on his face, and now they were twisting his wrists behind his back, forcing Chris to watch as his partner was being dragged toward Jill's empty pod.

The young woman fought them off for a couple seconds, which was impressive after that blow to the stomach she took, but soon Sheva was overpowered and restrained just like her partner. One of the infected pulled her hair to keep the young woman off balance by tilting her head back as far as it would go, while the others kept her arms twisted, with one of them using his free hand to slug her in the mouth when she tried kicking at them in a desperate attempt to get away.

"_Wacha niende_!" Sheva shrieked, struggling against them but not getting anywhere. "Chris, help me! Help! No… no, _usiniweke huko_!"

"Sheva!" Chris yelled, unable to free himself either. "Let her go, Excella! Do what you want with me, just let Sheva go!"

In response, the woman laughed, commenting that no one was going to miss another _nameless peasant_, just like no one ever came looking for the thousands of vagrants and drifters that already occupied the pods. If Umbrella had been smart, they would have done the same thing, and Excella laughed while saying that the company should have been harvesting the useless savages of this continent, instead of driving them off their land in order to try extracting some ancient virus from those ridiculous flowers upstairs.

For a second the Agent managed to get one of his arms free, but this attempt to help Sheva was short lived, since it was stopped by Excella giving him a hard kick to the mouth with the pointed front of her shoe. The young woman fought harder and more desperately as they armed men got her up to the edge of the pod, even managing to free herself completely after kicking one so that he fell right over the edge of the platform, but again this was stopped by Excella when she casually walked up behind the young woman while taking a small device out of her purse.

Since she was still struggling to fight off the other two, there was no way for Sheva to avoid having the device pressed into her lower back, and then the young woman let out a high pitch shriek when fifty thousand volts were sent through her body. The armed men let go of her as she collapsed, but Excella wasn't done with her just yet; pulling her hair to force Sheva up to her knees, and then making her whole body convulse when the stun gun was discharged into the back of her neck. Keeping the self-defense weapon pressed into her even after she fell back down, the woman kept this up until the whole battery was drained almost a minute later, and now the infected had no trouble moving Sheva around as they pleased.

"_Hapana… tafadhali_." She said weakly as they forced her inside. "_Chris niokoe… ninaogopa_."

But there was nothing the Agent could do as they locked the restraints around her ankles, wrists, and neck, pressing a button on the side of the frame to make to pod slowly close, and then Chris lost sight of her when a bunch of pressurized gas was released inside, fogging up the viewing window. Now that this was over, the infected picked him up to his feet, holding the Agent in place while the others joined them, and then he was face to face with Excella.

"Look, hey… don't do this, all right?" The Agent begged, glancing back at the pod. "You've got us, and there's nothing we can do, just _please_ let Sheva out of there."

"Don't worry, _someday_ we'll get around to making use out of her… maybe." The woman said coldly while putting the stun gun back in her purse. "But, since we wouldn't want you feeling left out, and you _did_ offer for me to _do what I want with you_, I have an opportunity for someone with your skills that you might find interesting… follow me, please."

As soon as Excella turned to walk back toward the door she came in through, the infected pushed Chris forward, keeping his body completely restrained so that there was no way for him to fight back as he was led away from the platform, and toward another part of the base where… where who even _knew_ what was waiting for him?


	31. Chapter 31 Uroboros

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Thirty One: Uroboros**

"As you can see, we are a completely modern research facility." Excella said with a chipper tone as if she were a tour guide. "Some updates had to be made, but I couldn't believe how many valuable materials Umbrella just _left_ here after the company went bust."

It was hard for Chris to see everything with how the infected were keeping him restrained as they left the pod chamber, but so far the rest of the facility was just as high tech. The corridor was sterile white like a hospital, and climate controlled like everywhere else, but what the Agent didn't see were any more people walking around, scientist nor infected. A number of doors lined the halls as they rounded several corners, but each one was closed, and he wasn't exactly in a position to do any exploring.

"Sure, we needed people like Irving to handle some networking on the ground." The woman continued, her high heels making a _clop-clop_ sound against the tile floor. "But in addition to the Licker you saw upstairs, Umbrella left samples of the original T-Virus, which actually saved us a lot of work."

According to Excella, through the various contacts involved in the project, her division of Tricell was able to get viable samples of the G and T-Veronica Viruses, and most recently even an original Control Plaga from Spain, which cost a _pretty penny_, as she put it. Many of the test subjects were innocent people taken from all over the world, like Sheva thought, with the woman not appearing to give a damn that they were human beings at all, which made Chris worry about what was happening to his new partner.

This long corridor eventually ended at a metal door that slid open with a whooshing sound, and then the Agent was marched into an area that was a lot darker, but much more open than the brilliant white hallway. From the monitoring equipment that beeped and clicked softly along the walls, he could tell that this was some kind of laboratory, complete with specimen tanks and examination tables, although none of them were occupied… except for one that was way in the back.

Instructing the group to wait there for a moment, Excella walked away from them, passing through a door that slid open as she approached, only to beep loudly as it shut and locked itself afterward. The lighting in this room wasn't very good, but the flickering fluorescent tube lights were enough to let the Agent see the test subject a little better now that the group had stopped moving. The man was bald, light skinned and shirtless, with no hair visible anywhere on his body, but there were plenty of marks what almost looked like… small burns?

Poor guy was probably in a lot of pain, and out of it too, with how his head was rolling back and forth while his wrists and ankles were strapped tightly to the frame of the examination chair that he was sitting on. The subject woke up real fast once when some kind of small mechanical appendage extended upward from the chair, making him gasp as some kind of hypodermic needle was stabbed into the side of his neck, and now the poor guy was making some kind of coughing sound as the contents were injected.

"_All right, Chris, welcome to today's little experiment_." Excella's voice said, now sounding like she was on a PA system. "_In his last communication, Irving mentioned that you had been asking about Uroboros, and the good news is that by you participating here, it looks like both of us are going to get what we want… release him_."

The Agent was visibly startled when the armed infected men holding him suddenly let go, but not at all surprised when they stepped back in order to aim their rifles once again. As for his captor, Chris needed only to look up in order to see that Excella was now watching the whole thing from behind the really strong looking window of some kind of observation room that looked down on the laboratory from above. There the woman leaned back in the chair, crossing her legs and smiling as if she were about to watch some kind of performance.

"Damn it… what the hell is going on here?! The Agent demanded, looking at the armed men and then back at her. "And what have you done with Jill?!"

"_Jill, Jill, Jill_." Excella mocked him, rolling her eyes. "_You're like a broken record, you know that? I know you like to be the hero, but if I were you I'd worry a little more about myself right now, because that man over there has just been injected with Uroboros_."

Gasping as he turned toward the test subject, Chris watched in horror as the man's skin began to bubble a bit, making him groan in pain… just as the restraints holding him to the chair were released. Now the armed man around him started to react, spreading out across the room and appearing to forget about him completely while aiming their rifles at the test subject who was now starting to stand up. The infected were taking covered positions around the laboratory while the man swayed back and forth like he was confused… and then the one infected that remained there with him surprised Chris further by giving him back his flare gun.

"_Uroboros is a new type of BOW that adapts to the DNA of its host_." The woman explained as the burns on the man's body slowly healed. "_It's a philosopher's stone, one that chooses which of us are worthy of evolution… you see, the new world will only accept the best of humanity, and if adaptation is successful, the specimen is endowed with incredible powers_."

The Agent was about to ask what happened when it wasn't successful, but stopped when the test subject began to slowly walk toward the nearest infected man… but then he groaned again while stopping in place. The man's skin was bubbling again, this time looking like something… actually, a bunch of somethings were slithering their way around underneath his skin like snakes. Beginning where the burns used to be and then branching out, Chris's mouth ran dry when he saw the black snake like tendrils burst their way out of the host.

"_Ah… too bad_." The woman sighed as if disappointed. "_Unfortunately, Uroboros is very discriminatory, and only about fifteen percent of the subjects are successful… but we still need combat data from even the failures, and well… that's where you come in_."

Grabbing his bald head and screaming in pain as more and more black tendrils shot out from his body, the test subject tried to scream for help, but was gagged when more black tendrils shot out of his mouth. _Fwoosh-BOOM_! With only the pink flare gun to defend himself with, the Agent aimed at the poor bastard and pulled the trigger, causing the other half of the laboratory to light up with red fire when it hit the subject in the chest. Several of the black tendrils fell to the floor, drying up almost instantly upon being separated from the main body as the light faded, and… and holy shit, this thing was starting to look _a lot_ like the monster that took out Alpha Team.

By the time the light from the flare faded completely, there was visibly nothing left of the test subject, leaving only a twisting mass of black snake like tendrils that were trying to form arms and legs. Yeah, this was another of those monsters that killed DeChant, only it was a lot bigger and more ferocious looking as it turned and went for the nearest infected man. The beast was too fast for him, swinging one of its newly formed arms, and causing that foul smelling black slime to splatter all over the nearest wall as the armed man was sent flying.

_Ratta-tatta-ratta-tatta_! In reaction to being attacked, all of the armed men aimed their rifles, and soon the whole laboratory was being lit up by rapid flashes of light and noise. Hundreds of those snake like tendrils were sent falling from the main body as the hail of bullets struck its target, drying up into dust as soon as they hit the floor, but… but more and more tendrils grew back to replace the ones that had been lost, and now the monster was advancing again.

Instead of swatting the next infected man away like it had done to the first one, one of the arms grabbed him, with the tendrils immediately wrapping around him, consuming the infected man's entire body as it was pulled into the center of the creature, and then the whole thing began to increase in size. Chris didn't understand much about Uroboros, but it was like it fed on the original host in order to begin growing, and then increased in both size and power with each new body that was added into the mix, like how the first creature did with the BSAA agent's corpse back in the old recycling center.

"You have to burn it!" The Agent yelled to the infected man next to him. "These things are sensitive to heat, use your grenades!"

The infected man ignored him as he and the others continued shooting the monster, and even though they managed to destroy one of its main arms, causing the monster to fall onto the floor, the limb was beginning to regenerate in a matter of seconds. Not about to just stand there and do nothing, Chris reached out and took the pistol from the armed man's belt, grabbing all of his extra clips, and even the grenades… and the only thing the infected man did in reaction was reload his rifle. Like Irving, Excella must have had a Control Plaga in her possession, and what… had she ordered these guys to not attack him during the experiment?

Either way, at least he was armed again, so the Agent pulled the pin out of one of the red grenades, and tossed it. The monster didn't react to the small explosive at all when it bounced off the main body and fell to the floor, but then it went off, and the creature shrieked as its body was engulfed in flames. Now he pulled the pin on the green one and tossed it as well, and in the monster's weakened condition, the resulting explosion was enough to completely destroy its arm and leg on the left side.

Maybe the infected men had ignored him about using fire because they didn't speak English, but that changed as soon as they saw what the grenades had done to the monster. Unfortunately, even though the infected men who remained were moving closer in order to use their own explosives, the monster was already starting to recover. One of the infected men used a green grenade, and although the explosion did some visible damage, it wasn't nearly as effective without the creature being burned first, and now it was advancing again.

"Look out!" Chris yelled to the ones who were closest to it. "Don't let it grab you!"

It was weird that he was actually concerned for the wellbeing of the infected men, but at the same time they were his only hope of survival against the Uroboros monster… and it was about to grab another one of them. Like all the others who were infected with Type 2 Plagas, these men had the ability to fight and learn, while being a lot tougher than normal humans, but… but they were no match for this kind of creature in a fair fight, and as it wrapped itself around another of them to become even stronger, the Agent wasn't sure how he was going to get out of this one.


	32. Chapter 32 Last Man Standing

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Thirty Two: Last Man Standing**

The six remaining infected men were starting to learn how stay alive against this monster, diving underneath and jumping over cover to avoid getting grabbed by its arms, but instead of using their grenades they had gone back to shooting at it with their rifles, probably to conserve their explosives, and also because their combined small arms fire had managed to destroy one of the monster's arms. This didn't do much good, though, since the thing leapt forward immediately after, sailing almost a third of the laboratory's length before landing right on top of one of the survivors.

As it had done before, the Uroboros creature began regenerating even faster after absorbing the latest body, growing until it was almost double its original size, which made it harder for the infected men to avoid it while trying to counterattack. Chris knew that they could never win at this rate, so instead of wasting his own ammo, the Agent went around the room trying to get more supplies. While the monster remained focused on the infected, he made sure to stay on the opposite end of the room, grabbing unused grenades off the belts of the armed men who were still alive.

He couldn't take the ammo or weapons from the monster's victims, since they were all covered by that corrosive black slime, so Chris had to steal from several of them in order to be fully armed as far as his new pistol and grenades. He even managed to recover the rifle and ammo of the first infected man who had been killed, since he had been swatted away and not absorbed. Part of him wanted to start fighting right away while it was distracted by the infected, but the Agent knew that there was no way to win as long as there were more bodies for the thing to absorb.

Either way, the infected didn't last much longer anyway; most of them getting absorbed, while a few of them were swatted away so hard that they were killed upon impact with the wall of the room. One of them was even tossed into one of the empty specimen containers so hard that the glass shattered, allowing the water, or… whatever fluid was inside to spill out all over the floor. The monster was much bigger now, and even more so as it went around the room almost instinctively in order to snatch up all of the bodies, leaving it with no more distractions as it slowly turned toward him.

"_Aw, looks like your friends are all dead, Chris_." His captor's voice taunted. "_Uroboros is the ultimate Bio-weapon, and cannot be defeated, so why don't you save yourself some pain, and shoot yourself in the head?_"

During all of this, that bitch Excella just sat up there in the observation room, watching as if this whole thing were a show on _Netflix_ or something. But it wasn't, this was real life, and if Chris didn't find a way to kill this thing, then his was about to be over, so he pulled the pin on a red grenade and tossed it. The monster was huge now and coming right toward him, so aiming the explosive was easy… but the Agent just hoped that the puddle of fluid from the specimen tank that it landed in wouldn't reduce the blast area too much.

_FWOOSH_! Instead of being reduced, the fluid ignited when the red grenade went off, causing an explosion of flame with such heat and intensity that Chris was knocked off his feet while the monster's whole body was engulfed in flames. The thing roared and shrieked as it flopped around in an attempt to put out the fire, with hundreds of its black tendrils shriveling up into nothing when they fell to the floor, but this wasn't enough. As soon as his vision cleared from the intense light from the blast, the Agent pulled the pin from one of the green grenades and tossed it, however the creature was apparently learning as well.

_BOOM_! Swinging one of its arms as the grenade flew toward it, the monster swatted the small explosive away just before it exploded. The very end of its arm was still caught in the blast, which wasn't enough to destroy the limb completely, but another specimen tank was also caught by the pieces of flying shrapnel, causing its contents to start spraying out all over the floor. Chris didn't know what that stuff was inside the tanks, but it was certainly flammable, so instead of attacking the creature again once the flames covering its body went out, he aimed his rifle at the other containers.

_Ratta-tatta… ratta-tatta_! Putting several holes into one tank, and then doing the same to another, most of the floor was soon covered with that clear, flammable chemical, a lot of which was sprayed directly onto the monster as the Agent led it in circles around the laboratory. This was hard because the creature was still fast, even though it was barely regenerating at all now from lack of new bodies, and for this plan to work Chris had to make sure that none of the chemical got on him… or else he would probably get roasted alive.

The monster was starting to anticipate his movements now, where at first it had been easy to make it run around circles to chase him, but now when he tried to run around something, it would try to go around the other way to head him off. Needless to say, the Agent was relieved when most of the flammable chemicals were emptied onto the floor, and then he moved onto one of the last dry areas of the room before pulling the pin on another red grenade. He had needed to sprint hard to get away from the pursuing monster, leaving Chris breathing heavily as he tossed the explosive with the last of his strength, and then there was an incredible flash of light.

Crying out when the heat from the explosion burned his face and arms, the Agent was thrown backwards into the wall by the force of the blast, forced to cover his stinging eyes with his hands in an attempt to stop the pain, which did… nothing at all. The smoke and heat made it even harder to open them again, but when he did he saw that the creature was having an even worse time than he was. _Boom_! Another specimen holding tank that was still mostly full of chemical exploded right next to the thing, burning its legs into nothing as it fell down onto the still burning floor.

Not wanting to give it even a moment to recover, Chris started throwing every grenade that he had, blasting large pieces out of its body with the green ones and then burning it even more with the remaining red ones. With fires burning all around it, and no more bodies within range to feed off of, Excella's _ultimate Bio-weapon_ could no longer regenerate as fast as it was being damaged… God, without those tanks being full of a flammable chemical, the Agent might very well be dead right now.

_Ratta-tatta-ratta-tatta_! With no more explosives, and the Uroboros monster still moving, Chris began to shoot it in the back with his rifle, aiming for what remained of the joints for its limbs so that they couldn't grow back. Each time the creature tried to get up, a few more shots would send it back down into the flames, where less of it still remained with each new attempt until… until it stopped moving altogether. Good thing too, since most of the fires around the room had gone out… and now there was only his captor, herself to deal with.

"_Not bad, Mr. Redfield, not bad at all_." Excella's voice said over the PA as she slowly clapped for him. "But don't think that just because you survived my little experiment, that you have the upper hand here."

Ignoring her words as he walked over to the door she had gone through earlier, he found it securely locked when he pulled on the latch. Reloading the rifle, Chris was about to try shooting the thing until it opened, but then his captor caught his attention by saying that she was going to offer him a choice that involved the two buttons on the control panel in front of her. The first one would unlock the door back to the pod chamber where his partner was being held, while the second one would immediately move Sheva's pod to the front of the line to be infected with a Type 2 Plaga.

"I'm sure you could eventually open this door, and get to me." The woman continued. "But I doubt it would be before that little brat wakes up to a nasty surprise… make your choice."

"Fine… open the door." The Agent grumbled, not willing to risk the young woman's life. "But I _promise_ you, Excella… if Sheva is harmed in _any_ way, you're gonna pay for it."

Clearly not taking his threat seriously, the woman smiles and blew his a kiss before pushing the button that unlocked the door behind him. As much as he wanted to storm into the observation room and pistol-whip the hell out of that smug little bitch, right now his partner's life was the most important thing, so Chris turned away and sprinted across the laboratory. Going so fast that he nearly ran into it while it was sliding open, the Agent had to squint his eyes in order to get used to the sterile white illumination of the main corridor again.

The facility was still deserted, allowing him to move unobstructed back down the hallway and into the central chamber, where the pod Sheva had been locked inside was still sitting there at the edge of the platform. The system was still unlocked, so with the same sequence that he had used to open it while they were searching for Jill, the seal was broken with a loud hiss of pressurized gasses. Water poured out as the main hatch lifted upward, revealing that the young woman was still in restraints, although her clothes were soaking wet from being completely submerged in fluid… and she wasn't moving.

Removing the restraints from her wrists and ankles, the Agent picked up the unresponsive young woman, and laid her down on the platform. Sheva wasn't breathing, but she still had a pulse when he put his finger against the side of her neck… God damn that bitch, Excella, just leaving the young woman in there to drown… he was gonna kill her. However, Chris wasn't about to give up on his partner just yet, so he tilted her head back, took a deep breath, and started to give her mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Doing CPR wasn't like in the movies; it was actually pretty time consuming, and only had a small chance to bring someone back on its own, but the Agent kept it up. Rotating back and forth between chest compressions and mouth to mouth, it didn't take long before he was starting to get tired… but then he gasped and ended up choking a little himself when his partner suddenly spit a bunch of water up into his mouth. Sheva rolled over onto her side, gasping and coughing while Chris spit out the remainder of the water.

His partner was alive! Now all they had to do was go after Excella, but… now the fatigue of that last battle was catching up to him, and… maybe just a few minutes rest first… yeah… just a few…


	33. Chapter 33 Chasing Excella

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Thirty Three: Chasing Excella**

It took a bit longer than predicted for both BSAA agents to recover from the ordeals that they had both experienced, with Chris passing out for a little while before Sheva woke him up… only for the young woman to hug him tightly while bursting into tears as she tried to process what had happened to her inside that pod. There hadn't been any actual experimentation done on her, at least none she was aware of, but the pressurized gas that sedated her was so hot that it felt like she was being boiled alive, and the feeling of being drowned when the water rose… yeah, he couldn't blame her for needing a few minutes.

Eventually, though, they both knew that it was time to move on, since Excella needed to be captured, but at least now they were armed again. The Agent gave his partner the rifle and all the clips he had gotten from the infected men, while keeping the pistol for himself, and there weren't any more grenades. Chris also told Sheva about what happened with the armed men and Uroboros, not that all the stuff Excella was saying about evolution and a philosopher's stone made much sense to either of them.

This time, though, while walking back down the sterile white corridor, the Agent took the time to peek into some of the closed doors, only to find that all the rooms were empty. Just like with the Umbrella facility upstairs, these small rooms showed signs of having once been offices, but were now picked clean of any files or computers that were possibly useful… and this cleansing must've been pretty recent too, by the freshness of the drag marks and lack of any dust on the metal desks where the computers would have been.

"Looks like Tricell's gonna cut and run like Umbrella." Chris commented as they moved back into the hall. "Come on, we gotta move fast."

Continuing down the hallway and going back into the laboratory where he fought the Uroboros monster, Chris didn't stop to look at the destruction that had been caused to the room, even though he was partially aware of the young woman making a comment about how things seemed to explode whenever the Agent was left on his own for any length of time. Instead he focused on the door his captor had gone through before the experiment, which was surprisingly unlocked. What wasn't surprising about the whole thing was that after climbing up the short staircase into the observation room, Excella was gone.

"I'm sorry, Chris." Sheva said, looking at the chair that the woman had sat on to watch the experiment. "I'm sure you would've caught her if you hadn't had to come back for me."

"Excella can be caught any time." He replied, putting a hand on her shoulder. "But you're my partner, and your life is more important than putting handcuffs on some scumbag terrorist… God, when I get my hands on that woman, I'm gonna…

The Agent stopped talking as he noticed another door at the back of the small observation room, and since Excella hadn't come back into the pod chamber, this was the only way she could have possibly gone. Maybe there was still time to catch her, Chris allowed himself to think as he walked over to the door and turned the latch. Yeah, maybe if they picked up the pace… if Excella got away, it was going to be a lot harder to find her again than it had been to find Irving, given that the woman had a lot more funding and resources that she could use to both run away and disappear.

One thing that was for sure was that he was definitely not going to suggest calling in Tobias Liquid if they needed to track her down, especially after what he had heard happened to Jessica Sherawat after she had vanished during the Queen Zenobia disaster. Apparently one of the many Deputy Directors of the BSAA, none of them would admit to it, decided to have the former detective track down the traitor, and the good news was that he found her in a relatively short amount of time, but… it was awful.

From the unsigned report that had come across Barry Burton's desk, Tobias found her in Paris in less than a day, which was great, but then he had his wife, Gillette infect more than a dozen innocent people with C-Spores so that there would be no witnesses when he burned Jessica to death, along with the entire café that she had been hiding at. Thankfully, all of the infected people had committed suicide by doing a swan dive off the top of the Eifel Tower, so an outbreak was avoided, and the news called it a suicide cult.

Nor was Chris going to mention any of this to Sheva, being that Tobias had killed her parents onboard the Starlight and all that, so instead he returned his attention to the pursuit of Excella. Passing through the unlocked door, and then heading up another long set of concrete stairs, the Agent noticed that the architecture of the hallway changed about halfway up the stairs. Now the sterile white modern walls and lighting had returned to the same decades old construction as the upstairs Umbrella base, as if the Tricell area had been built below the whole thing, and they were no going back up into it.

All the lights in the old 60's style fixtures still worked, allowing them to see the bare concrete floor and cinder block walls that awaited them at the top of the stairs, but this place looked more like a maintenance area than a lab. There were grated metal catwalks above them, with very large pipes and conduits running between them like a makeshift ceiling between floors… and there were certainly a lot of floors in this one rectangular chamber that went up… and up… and up.

"That is a, uh… lot of stairs." Sheva commented, looking up as high as she could. "You don't see an elevator or anything around here, do you?"

"No, I don't." Chris replied, turning around one more time in the hopes of finding one. "But if this is the only way up, then Excella had to go this way too, and she was in _heels_, so she can't be too far ahead."

The young woman sighed deeply, following the Agent as he started up the stairs, and for a while the two of them kept up a pretty good pace as they went around the room, going up… and around… and up… and around… and up… and around. They had started off running full speed, which gradually became a brisk pace, which gradually turned into a slow walk… which gradually became a hobble while leaning heavily on the guardrail… and then a crawl that lasted about three more steps before Chris had to stop. He was dripping sweat while huffing and puffing, leaning past the guard rail to check on how his partner was doing… but his answer came from the level below, where the young woman was leaning over the guard rail so that she could vomit over the side.

"Hey… Sheva… you… all right?" He called in between short, labored breaths while lying on his back on the stairs. "Doing… okay… back… there?"

"_Kutomba… haya… ngazi_." She replied, breathing just as heavily as him. "_Njoo… chini… na… nibeba… mimi_."

Great, so she was doing just as good as he was, and… holy shit, how had a spoiled brat pencil-pusher like Excella Gionne made it all the way up these stairs, while a couple of battle hardened BSAA agents were literally losing their lunch over the effort? No, come on, Chris, he mentally told himself while trying to roll over to continue… can't let Excella get away… gotta keep going. Sheva continued to say things to him in Swahili, but the two of them kept going, literally crawling their way up the stairs, but then he saw it.

After turning one last corner and crawling up one last flight of stairs, there was a door… and no more stairs after it. A light fixture was mounted on the wall just above it, the door itself was a faded yellow color as if an old signal that this was the entrance/exit to the facility's maintenance area, and now… if only Chris had the strength left to walk over there and open it. A few minutes later Sheva appeared, crawling her way up that last flight of stairs, and then leaning on the Agent as she sat next to him.

"Just… a… couple… minutes." The young woman panted. "Need… to… catch… my… breath."

"No argument here." Chris replied, since he was only just starting to catch his own. "Just take your time; in through the nose, out through the mouth."

At least Sheva didn't throw up again, like she had done a few levels down, and after a few minutes of this her own breathing returned to normal as well. Both of them were still a little sore, and well fatigued from… everything that had happened since the mission started in Kijuju City, but once this was all over the Agent planned on taking a little vacation time. Vacation time that involved a big comfortable bed, a beautiful woman, and a part of the world that _didn't_ completely suck in every way possible.

The young woman was on her feet first this time, offering her hand and then helping Chris to get up as well, and then after a deep breath the two of them headed toward the yellow door. The latch turned with a hard _click_, followed by a rusty _squeak_, opening up into the rocky walls and ceiling of a cave. The concrete floor ended a few feet after the door, replaced by uneven natural stone… and across the chamber there was another carved wall like what had been seen down in the ancient city.

"We're still in the ruins?" He asked, looking at the wall in front of them. "Just how big _is_ this place?"

Like the entrance to the city, the wall was elaborately carved, but also had upper walkways and support pillars as if this were more like the entrance to a mansion or a palace, than the gate to another city, while between them and the palace wall, there was a lot of really old looking construction equipment. There were forklifts, stacks of bags of concrete, tools and rubbish bins, all of which were both heavily rusted and bearing the Umbrella Corporation logo on the side, as if the company had still been working on this part of their facility when funding had run out.

Like everywhere else they had seen since entering the facility, this area was deserted, and again, the large stone door on the palace wall was the only way forward. Chris didn't understand why, but he got a strong feeling of dread as he looked at the carved wall, promoting him to check to make sure that his pistol was fully loaded, before he and Sheva carefully started making their way toward the stone door.


	34. Chapter 34 Family Reunion

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Thirty Four: Family Reunion**

The stone door was heavy, but it was a lot quieter than the yellow door as it was pushed open just enough for Chris to see what was inside, and as he feared it wasn't deserted. The open layout and stairs toward the back suggested that this was the entry hall of the palace, or whatever this was, and there was a small pile of file folders and computers in the center, all of which were being picked up by more armed infected men… under the direction of Excella.

"_Wacha twende wapumbavu, tembea haraka_." She said sternly, pointing at the last of it. "_Chukua kasi, nyinyi wasiostahili_."

"That condescending bitch." Sheva whispered, starting to push the door. "I have a few words of _my own_ for her."

"Hold on, not yet." The Agent whispered, grabbing her wrist to stop her. "Wait until she's alone."

As expected, someone like Excella didn't want to do any of the heavy lifting, so she just sat there on a carved bench, barking orders at the infected, until the last of the equipment had been carried away. The infected men had taken the files and computers up the back stairs to where they vanished behind a wall, and now the woman was alone as she stood up, walking over to the center of the room where only a single, expensive looking metal briefcase remained. It must've been important for someone like her to be willing to carry it all by herself, so Chris waited until she was about to grab it, and then shoved the door open.

"Excella Gionna!" Sheva yelled as they rushed into the room, visibly startling the woman. "Stop right there, and put your hands on your head!"

"What... the elevator entrance is hidden, how the hell did you two get up here so fast?" Excella replied, trying to regain her composure. "Oh… don't tell me you climbed all the way up those stairs just to have a chance to see me…

_Bang_! By this point, Chris had officially had enough of this woman's mouth, so he aimed the his pistol down a little bit and pulled the trigger, making Excella shriek when the bullet hit her in the leg. She fell over sideways, and tried to scramble away as the blood from her wound left a trail across the carved stone floor, but the Agent stopped this by walking over to her and pinning her down by pressing his foot onto her chest hard enough to make her gasp for breath.

"You still think this is a _game_, you little asshole?!" He demanded, aiming the pistol right at her head. "Now, first you're gonna tell me where Jill is, and _then_ you're gonna tell me all about the plan for Uroboros, because if you don't… then I _swear _I'm gonna blow your brains _all over this room_, do you understand me?!"

"_Ugh_… oh, you're gonna _pay_ for this!" Excella hissed, trying not to cry out in pain. "You're gonna… _ugh_… pay long, you're gonna pay hard, and… _ugh_… you're gonna pay right now!"

Suddenly there was a flash of movement as a shadowy figure appeared seemingly out of nowhere… a figure that kicked him in the chest as she flew through the air, knocking the Agent off his feet, and then kicking the pistol away from his hand before turning heel to run after Sheva. _Ratta-tatta! Ratta-tatta!_ It was the hooded plague doctor, the one had been helping Irving back at Kijuju City and the oil field, and now his partner was firing controlled bursts with her rifle, trying to hit the mysterious woman without hitting Chris or Excella.

Whoever the plague doctor was, she was fast, dropping down and sliding across the floor to kick Sheva's legs out from under her after avoiding the bullets, and then kneeing the young woman in the face once she was down. The mysterious woman disarmed Sheva just as she had done to Chris, by kicking the rifle away from her, and then both women scrambled to their feet while the Agent ran to grab his pistol from where it landed. Reaching down to grab the weapon, he immediately returned to Excella, pointing it at the wounded woman's head again at the same time that the plague doctor managed to restrain Sheva in front of her… with her own pistol jammed into the young woman's ribs.

"_Let Excella go, and drop your weapon_." The plague doctor ordered in that synthesized voice. "_Do it, or I will kill the girl, and then you right after_."

Even though she was in a lot of pain, that smug little smirk had returned to Excella's face, but the Agent had a feeling that the plague doctor was going to kill them anyway if he did what she said… so he took a risk that was very dangerous and stupid. _Bang_! Quickly moving the pistol away from the wounded woman, Chris pulled the trigger as soon as it was aimed at the plague doctor, causing sparks to fly when the bullet struck the center of that metal bird mask she was wearing.

_Bang_! Taking another shot as soon as his partner was clear, the Agent shot the pistol out of the plague doctor's hand, causing it, her mask, and her to fall to the floor at the same time. _Yes_! The Agent thought as he aimed the weapon at Excella again, score one for the greatest marksman in RPD history, and with one of the targets wounded, and the other in a sitting position without her weapon, they had no choice but to do what they were told.

"You; don't fucking move a muscle." He ordered to Excella while Sheva grabbed her fallen rifle. "And you… _bird girl_… crawl over here and keep your hands where I can see them; on your belly like the snake you are. Move!"

At first the plague doctor didn't move, only her mouth visible from under that hood, scowling at him while a drop of blood ran down from her face. However, as soon as Excella screamed for her to _do it_ after the Agent pressed his foot down on her wounded leg, the plague doctor started crawling. All right, finally the leaders of Irving's whole operation had been captured, and now maybe someone around there could give him some answers to the whole Uroboros scheme, whatever that was, and more importantly _someone_ was going to tell him what happened to Jill Valentine.

"Well, ask and ye shall receive." A familiar voice answered, making a knot form in Chris's stomach. "So _good_ to see you again, Chris, have you been hitting the gym? You're looking… _buff_."

_Oh... fuck_, the Agent thought as he slowly turned around to see the blond haired, sunglasses wearing form of Albert Wesker walking down the room's rear staircase. He hadn't made an aggressive move yet, nor did he appear to be carrying a weapon of any kind, but that didn't matter… this guy didn't _need_ to be armed. Trying to keep his breathing and anxiety under control, Chris turned and aimed his pistol at the approaching blond man, and Sheva seemed to get the idea, because she was now aiming the rifle at him as well.

"Pity… I was hoping you would bring your sister along." Wesker continued, stopping a few steps from him. "Hmm… the new girl is lovely, but I'll always have a special place in my heart for _sweet little Claire_… and besides, this whole scene would have been even better if it were a _complete_ family reunion. Stand up, please, my love."

"No, you don't move!" Chris ordered as the plague doctor reached up to take the blond man's hand. "I don't know what your game is, Wesker, but you stay the hell back, or…

There had been plenty of things that the Agent had seen in his life that shocked him to the core, but none of them were quite as hard hitting as what he saw once the plague doctor was on her feet. Moving up against Wesker, and then holding onto him as if they were lovers, the mysterious woman remained still while the blond man slowly removed her hood to expose her long blonde ponytail, as well as her face. No… this wasn't possible, his eyes had to be playing tricks on him, especially when Wesker kissed her on the forehead where she had a small cut from when her mask had been knocked off… but there was no mistake… it was her.

"Jill?" Chris whispered, still unable to believe his eyes. "What… no, this can't… no."

"Oh, but it _can_, Chris… and it _is_." The blond man replied, laughing a bit while putting his arm around Jill. "I'll admit I was skeptical about her new hair color at first, but you know… now that we've got her little _attitude_ under control, Jill Valentine really _is_ the perfect woman… try not to be _too_ jealous, Excella."

With a groan that sounded almost like it was more annoyed than in pain, the wounded woman on the floor reached up for him to help her, reminding Wesker that they had to finish abandoning the base, to which the blond man laughed and replied that he _always_ had at least a few minutes to spare in his schedule for his dear old friend Chris… still, he supposed that in Excella was still vital to the project, and needed to be evacuated, no matter how pathetic she looked at the moment.

"Nobody's going anywhere!" Sheva suddenly ordered, keeping her rifle aimed at all three of them. "All of you get on the ground and keep your hands…

After smirking as he gave Jill a quick kiss on the lips, Wesker seemed to vanish in blurry movement, interrupting the young woman's words as he reappeared in front of her with a kick to her chest, and then Sheva was flying backwards. Her weapon flew from her hands as she landed hard on the floor, rolling and bouncing until she finally came to a stop up against one of the room's support pillars, and then the blond man looked back toward the Agent with another smirk. _Bang! Bang! Bang!_ Pulling the trigger as quickly as he could, Chris tried as hard as he could to hit his old enemy, but got nothing but air, and received a kick of his own for his trouble.

Once the Agent was on the ground, Wesker vanished again, this time reappearing long enough to pick up the wounded Excella in his arms, and then he left a blurry trail as he followed the path that the infected men had used to carry away the files. After a few seconds of Chris and Sheva trying to get up, the blurry movement returned, rushing back into the room until the blond man reappeared next to Jill, who still hadn't moved a muscle.

"So sorry about the interruption, Chris, I _know_ you don't like to be kept waiting." Wesker said, laughing a little as the two BSAA agents finished getting back up. "Now, first my _darling_ Jill is going to beat the new girl senseless, and then she's going to make her watch while I completely destroy you with my bare hands… _annnnd_… go."


	35. Chapter 35 Two on Two

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Thirty Five: Two on Two**

_Bang! Bang! Ratta-tatta!_ Opening fire immediately on their enemy, the hail of bullets that the two BSAA agents unleashed would have laid waste to any other target, but not this one. Just like he had done during the mission to find Spencer, the blond man moved so quickly that he appeared to momentarily vanish as he dodged their shots, and then before the Agent even knew what was happening, the weapons were ripped from their hands in a flash of blurry movement, leaving both of them unarmed the blond man tossed the pistol and rifle across the room.

In an effort to surprise his enemy after this, Chris ran toward Wesker while balling up his fist for a wild punch… which the blond man simply tilted his head to avoid. At the same time, Wesker brought up his knee into the Agent's stomach, knocking the wind out of him, before backhanding Chris across the face hard enough to make the Agent stumble backwards and fall down. He got up as quickly as he could, coughing a little from that blow to the stomach, taking another swing at the blond man as he approached, but this time Wesker grabbed Chris's arm and spun him around in order to shove the Agent face first into one of the carved pillars.

"I see you're admiring the ancient carvings." The blond man laughed, dragging Chris's face across the stone glyphs while twisting his arm behind his back. "You know, this looks familiar… when was the last time I had a Redfield in this position? Ah yes, it was your sweet little sister back in Antarctica… all right, Jill, switch partners."

Sheva hadn't been doing much better in her fight against the blonde woman; his partner was tough, and held her own for a while, but apparently Jill had been doing a lot of training over the past two years, because the young woman just couldn't keep up. Although not possessing the same kind of speed as Wesker, the blonde woman stepped back in order to grab Sheva's leg when the young woman kicked at her, and then Sheva cried out when Jill punched her in the ribs. Next the blonde woman hooked her leg out from under her while still holding the other one, before bending down and slugging the young woman in the face just before the blond man spoke.

Wesker continued to hold Chris in place, twisting his arm harder and harder until Jill managed to pull Sheva to her feet by her shirt, hitting her in the stomach once again, before shoving her toward him. At the same time, the blond man swung the Agent around and sent him stumbling over toward Jill, who quickly restrained him by grabbing his arm and twisting it back in order to force him down onto the floor. He tried to get out of it, but the blonde woman was able to put her knee into the back of his, making Chris land face first on the floor.

"Well… are you a cutie?" Wesker said, grabbing Sheva by the jaw and shoving her back against that same pillar. "You should be careful spending so much time around Chris; he has a poor track record of keeping his women safe. I mean, Jill's been my personal slave for two years… and did you know that Chris once even left his _own sister_ alone with me for _hours_ while he was _screwing_ Alexia Ashford? He probably left that part out of the report."

_Smack_! Letting go of Sheva's jaw after chuckling a bit, the blond man suddenly struck her in the mouth hard enough to make the young woman fall to her hands and knees, and then he placed his boot on top of her back… before pressing her down onto the floor onto her stomach hard enough to make her scream. Sheva cried out, coughing and gasping as he pressed down harder but the only good thing about all this was that Wesker's attention was away from Chris… and his partner's cries were masking the Agent's own efforts to overpower Jill.

The blonde woman was tough as they come, but Chris was a lot bigger and stronger than she was, allowing him to slowly push back against her arm until he was on his feet… before hip slinging Jill so that she landed right on top of the blond man. Since this caught him completely off guard, Wesker was knocked to the ground under the blonde woman's weight, but instead of trying to attack again, the Agent grabbed his partner's arm and pulled her to her feet. Even if they hadn't lost their weapons in the first couple seconds of the fight, there was no way they could win like this… it was time to retreat.

Hopefully the two of them would at least be back through the stone door and on their way back toward the Tricell/Umbrella facility before Wesker recovered, but it was only after passing through a narrow open doorway that Chris realized he was going the wrong way. In all the confusion of what was happening, he had meant to head back the way they came, but had gone sideways into another part of the palace instead. Apparently, this corridor led to a side staircase that went upward, so with no way to turn back now, the Agent pulled his partner along.

The young woman coughed and wheezed, stumbling along behind him as they reached the second floor, and Chris could already hear his enemy's footsteps as he reached the bottom of the stairs, so he pulled Sheva through the first doorway that he came to. This place was filled with decorative stone alters and tables, probably a place of worship for the ancient people who built the city, and right now as he pulled the young woman around a corner to hide while putting his hand over her mouth, he hoped that maybe some of those old gods might help him.

"Come on, Chris, don't hide." Wesker's voice taunted as it got closer. "I know you're embarrassed because now _everyone_ knows you fucked a BOW, but at least no one thinks you're gay anymore."

Keeping his hand over Sheva's mouth was the only way to keep her quiet while Wesker's shadow appeared in the open doorway, and even the Agent was shaking a little when it got closer and closer, before suddenly turning away. Now the blond man could be heard ordering Jill to stay down in the main hall in case they somehow got past him, and then Wesker let out an angry _huff_ as his shadow moved away to start searching. There was another doorway on the other side of the room they were hiding in, so if they couldn't go back and couldn't stay where they were… maybe it was possible to stay hidden until their enemy lost interest.

"Are you okay?" Chris whispered after letting go of her mouth. "Come on, we gotta keep moving."

The young woman nodded that she was all right, even though she was still gasping a little with each breath, and then he took her hand while crouching down to be as quiet as possible as they moved toward the other end of the room. Stopping at the open doorway and peeking out, the Agent sighed with relief when he didn't see any sign of Wesker, and then the two of them ducked into another long room that was filled with… long stone coffins and urns? Was this some kind of family crypt?

"You must be _dying_ to know why Jill is blonde now, right?" Wesker's voice continued. "I'd love to say that I made her do it to look pretty for me, but truth is it just kind of happened during the very _invasive_ and _painful_ experiments I performed on her in those first few months. So what do you think? Will your new partner turn blonde too when I do the same thing to her? I'm pretty sure _Claire_ will."

Even with the echoes making it impossible to tell which direction the blond man's voice was coming from, Chris could tell that it was getting closer, so he started leading the young woman toward the room's other door… when he stopped after realizing that this room didn't _have_ another door. _Oh shit_, the Agent thought as the footsteps got even closer, there was nowhere to go… and they were unarmed… and the only usable thing in there was a bunch of old golden urns.

Wesker's shadow was starting to appear in the doorway now, so Chris did the only thing that was available; he picked up one of the larger urns, pulled the top off just as the blond man was coming around the corner, and threw all of the contents right into his sunglasses wearing face. Except there were no contents… instead of a blinding pile of ancient ashes going right into the blond man's eyes, there was only a tiny bit of dust that puffed out like a little cloud, and now Wesker was just standing there with an eyebrow raised.

"Run, Sheva!" Chris yelled, tossing the urn into the blond man's hands. "Get outta here, warn the BSAA!"

As soon as Wesker caught the urn, the Agent rushed at him, staying low to grab his enemy around the waist, and causing the golden artifact to fall to the floor as he drove him back out into the main corridor. Out of the corner of his eye, Chris saw the young woman take off running, but then the blond man twisted his body, allowing him to toss the Agent down the hallway as if he weighed nothing. Rolling and bouncing to a stop against the wall at a junction, Chris scrambled to his feet, not having any idea where this path led as he took off running to the left, but after rounding another corner he found himself on the upper floor of the palace's main hall… just before running right into Jill.

The blonde woman kicked him in the stomach, making the Agent stumble back a couple steps, before she took out her pistol and pulling the trigger. _Bang_! The bullet would surely have hit him right in the chest if Sheva hadn't come out of nowhere at the last second, knocking Jill's arm out of the way so that the bullet went wild, and then tackling the blonde woman against the stone guardrail… which broke apart under the strain. Chris reached out to try and stop them from going over, but was stopped when Wesker grabbed his wrist from behind, allowing both women to crash hard to the floor below.

"Sheva!" The Agent called, pulling to try and break the grip. "Wesker, you…

His words were interrupted when the blond man slugged him in the stomach with his free hand, and then picking Chris up over his head like he weighed nothing. The Agent cried out in fear when Wesker turned and tossed him over the guardrail, knocking the wind out of him and sending a dull throbbing pain shooting across the whole right side of his body, while everything that had been left inside his pouches went spilling out onto the floor. From where he was laying, Chris could see that the two women were still alive, but then his eyes returned to Wesker, who was stepping onto the guardrail to… leap off?

Yes, the Agent watched as the blond man leapt off the guardrail, going a short distance up into the air as he flew across the room, and then coming down. Down with a fist pulled back for a strike at the same time that Chris was trying to get out of the way, but in his weakened state this was impossible. _Wham_! The impact caused the Agent's vision to turn gray and tilt to the side as he was slammed back down onto the floor, and Chris was dimly aware that he was sliding… hearing an awful ringing sound in his ears as everything went black.


	36. Chapter 36 Breaking the Spell

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Thirty Six: Breaking the Spell**

Sheva couldn't believe what she had just seen. After falling through the broken guardrail with Jill, the young woman landed hard on her side, feeling like she had bruised her hip and maybe rolled her ankle in addition to the general soreness now overtaking her body, but then Chris came over the wall as well. Landing even harder than she had, and a lot farther away, the Agent was trying to get up, when Wesker swooped down on him like a hawk from the sky, delivering a punch that sent Chris back down… and this time he didn't get back up.

But Chris _had_ to get back up… he was a legend within the BSAA, a damn _superhero_ who couldn't be defeated no matter what he was up against… but he wasn't moving. From where she was, Sheva could see that the Agent was still breathing, but he was also completely unconscious, and offering no resistance at all when the blond man reached down and put him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Then he smirked at the unconscious Agent before starting to turn toward the stairs, only to stop and look back after a single step forward.

"I know, I promised to take you away, didn't I?" Wesker said as his smirk got bigger. "However, I need a subject with antibodies from the Daylight Vaccine, and you just don't measure up. Jill, take your time killing this girl, I want it to hurt, and then catch up with us."

For a second it looked like a flash of red light came from under his sunglasses, and then just like he had done with the wounded Excella, the blond man carried Chris off in a blur of distorted movement. This time, however, he didn't come back, leaving the young woman alone with Jill, who looked just as hurt from the fall as she was. The blonde woman was scowling like one of the infected, looking a little dazed as she used the wall to pull herself up to her feet while Sheva did the same thing, and then Jill attacked.

The young woman avoided the first kick that came by stepping backwards, and then she managed to block the punch that followed with her arm, but not the one that came after that. Taking the blonde woman's second punch right in the cheek, Sheva stumbled, righting herself in time to duck underneath a kick that was aimed at her face, and then she went on the offensive. Coming forward with a flying knee, the young woman didn't stop there even though Jill avoided it, finally managing to land a hit when her knuckles struck right next to the blonde woman's ear, forcing her to back off.

It was a victory that was short lived, however, since Sheva kept pursuing her when she backed away, it left her wide open for Jill to spin around and kick her in the chest, knocking the young woman off her feet. As expected, the blonde woman continued the attack, so Sheva thrust her legs upward and kicked her opponent in the mouth with both feet, knocking her down as well, and now it was time to get out of there. Chris had been taken away by Wesker to who knows where, and even though she managed a few lucky hits now and then, the young woman knew that she was no match for Jill in a stand up fight, so she needed to find…

A door was what she was seeking, preferably the one she and the Agent had come through, but instead the first thing Sheva's eyes fell upon was Chris's pistol laying a short distance away on the floor where the blond man had tossed it. She didn't want to kill the blonde woman or anything like that, but she doubted that Jill would simply let her escape, so… maybe a couple shots in the legs?

Scrambling to her feet, and limping a bit as she ran across the main hall, the young woman sprinted with what remained of her strength toward the fallen weapon, with her opponent's pursuing footsteps close behind. Jill was rapidly gaining ground after her own recovery, so Sheva dove for it, landing on top of the pistol just as the blonde woman leapt on top of her. Wrestling for control of the situation, the young woman was unable to get the pistol before her opponent grabbed her wrists, flipping her over and then giving Sheva a hard punch across the face.

_Whack! Whack! Whack!_ Punching the young woman in the face again and again, Jill showed no mercy as she locked her really strong hands around Sheva's throat and started to squeeze. There was no way for her to break the grip nor get enough leverage to throw the blonde woman off from where she was, so the young woman did the only thing she could, which was to reach under her back for the pistol that she was laying on. Unable to breathe from being choked, and things already starting to get dark as her strength faded, all Sheva could think of was how sorry she was as she moved the pistol underneath Jill's arms and pointed it right at the center of her chest.

_Bang_! The weapon went off, with the bullet putting a small hole in the blonde woman's combat suit when it struck her in the chest, but instead of blood flowing from the wound, it was blue electrical sparks. Jill gasped in reaction, trying to jump backwards to avoid another hit, but then falling over sideways while gripping her suit near the wound as if she were in pain. The sparking continued as Sheva used this distraction to scoot away from her opponent, accompanied by a strange mechanical sound that for a moment made the young woman afraid that she was fighting some kind of robot… but then Jill let out an agonized cry as she pulled open the very top of her suit.

"Holy shit." Sheva whispered in Swahili, keeping the pistol aimed at the blonde woman. "What the fuck is that?"

Because of how hard she was pulling on the material, the zipper on Jill's combat suit came down low enough to reveal most of her cleavage, as well as a strange metallic device that almost looked like an insect. With silver legs and frame, the main body of the insect-device was a faded red color like a jewel, and this was where the sparking and mechanical sound came from, as it appeared that Sheva's bullet had damaged the main body. The whole thing was just sitting there just above her breasts, with the ends of the legs buried into her skin so that they could be seen protruding as they spread out, like this device was… imbedded into her?

Jill screamed while clawing at the device, flopping around like a fish for a second, but then snarling again, before jumping up and starting to run toward Sheva. The young woman was about to pull the trigger again, when the blonde woman suddenly stopped in her tracks, screaming again while trying to grab onto the device… but then growling and stepping forward… only to stop again. It was like her opponent was suddenly locked in a battle with herself, as if part of her was still trying to kill the young woman, while another part was obsessed with removing that device.

"What is that?" Sheva asked, pointing at it while keeping the pistol aimed with her other hand. "What is that thing there? Is it hurting you?"

"He… help!" Jill struggled to yell loudly as more sparks flew from the device. "O… off!"

With an angry growl, the blonde woman started forward, suddenly screaming again as she stumbled sideways, falling to her hands and knees. She pulled at it, clawing at her own skin until she started bleeding, continuing to call for help while awkwardly crawling toward where Sheva was seated up against the nearby wall. Jill was crying, tears running down her face while she struggled to speak, and the young woman was just starting to lower her weapon in order to help her, when that angry scowl reappeared as the blonde woman drew her own pistol.

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_ With one bullet that went wild and his her in the shoulder, the other two struck the device, making black smoke pour from within its now partially shattered frame. During all of this, Sheva was terrified that Jill would kill her or that she would be forced to kill Jill, but maybe there was another option. Dropping her pistol, the young woman suddenly lunged forward the next time her opponent started screaming, using the distraction to tackle her onto the floor, before grabbing onto the insect-like device.

Wrapping her fingers around the exposed parts of its legs on both sides, Sheva used her small size and flexibility to bend her legs upward, planting them into the blonde woman's stomach and solar plexus while pulling with all her strength. It was a good thing that Jill had dropped her pistol when she was tackled, because at that moment the device started to spark even more rapidly, and Jill grabbed one of the young woman's legs to try and break her hold. Thanks to the wound in her shoulder, her opponent's strength wasn't as high as usual, allowing Sheva to hold on as the damaged device started to give.

"It's almost out, Jill!" She yelled, trying to ignore the pain of the blonde woman's fingers digging into her ankle. "Let go of me! Damn it, we need to work together!"

A couple centimeters at a time, the insect-like legs of the device were losing their hold, causing blood to run from the areas where they had inserted themselves into Jill's skin each time that ground was gained. It was tough, though, like this thing didn't want to let her go, but slowly… eventually… it came out. Flung away from Jill because of how hard her feet were pushing, Sheva landed on the floor while the device caught fire, making her throw it away once her fingers were burned a little.

As for Jill, she shrieked at the top of her lungs while collapsing onto her back on the floor, where she began to convulse. This seizure stopped after about a minute, ending with the blonde woman passing out, and now that her enemy was neutralized, Sheva could go after Chris. Among the items that had fallen out of her partner's pouches, was the satellite phone, which the young woman was going to use to call for extraction for Jill as soon as she got above ground, so she crawled across the floor, heading up the back stairs and going around the wall like Wesker had done while carrying both Excella and Chris… only to be blinded by sunlight after pushing open one door.

It was late afternoon now, judging by how far the sun had moved since she and Chris entered the cave in Irving's boat, and once her eyes adjusted, the young woman saw that she was no longer wandering through the wilderness of the marshlands. Instead, the place down at the bottom of a long metal staircase looked like the functioning port of a small city, complete with cargo containers, cranes and rigging, and a very large ship that was built for hauling cargo… one that was just starting to leave port as its fog horn blasted across the sky.

Now that the fight was over, Sheva was starting to realize how tired she was, struggling to use the speed dial function to contact Headquarters, while her eyes became heavy… and her whole body became warm just before she passed out right there in the doorway… lying face down on the concrete while the cargo ship started to leave port.


	37. Chapter 37 Revisions

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Thirty Seven: Revisions**

"And there we are." Wesker said as the empty syringe filled up with Chris's blood. "That wasn't so bad, now _was_ it?"

Once the syringe was full, the blond man passed it to Excella, who limped heavily on her bandaged leg as she took it over to the centrifuge on the counter. Once put into place, the sample began to spin around in order to begin the separation process, leaving nothing for the Agent to do but sit there and wait… not that he could have gone or did anything else. The last thing Chris remembered was fighting Wesker back at the underground palace, and then he woke up in this small laboratory, shirtless, strapped down to an examination table that was partially propped up in a sitting position.

His body was still wracked with pain and soreness from the fight, with multiple bruises forming all across the exposed parts of his skin… with more probably underneath his clothes. Excella kept giving the Agent dirty looks, and he couldn't blame her, being that he shot her in the leg, but that was the woman's own fault. After all, she could have just handed Jill over, or better yet, not gotten involved in Wesker's schemes in the first place, but no apparently that was too easy.

From somewhere far above the ceiling, he heard a fog horn, and this along with the rhythmic rocking back and forth of the entire place led him to believe that he was on a boat… pretty big one, probably. What worried him the most though, was that there had been no sign of Jill or Sheva since he woke up, and if the blond man had been able to capture him, then what had happened to the girls? There was no clock on the wall, nor were there any windows for Chris to get an idea of what time it was, and… what the hell did Wesker want his blood for?

"Isn't this just _lovely_, the two of us working together like old times?" The blond man asked with a smirk as he sat down in the chair facing him. "For the longest time I thought you were just a useless idiot, but then I heard that Alexia gave you the Daylight vaccine back in Antarctica, and look at that, you're suddenly useful… how _is_ Alexia these days, anyway?"

"Probably not too good, since she's dead." The Agent replied, pulling on the restraints to test them. "Didn't you know? I blew her up with a rocket launcher back in 1998."

Even though Wesker was wearing those sunglasses, Chris could tell that the blond man was just staring at him, almost like he was in disbelief, and then that horrible smirk returned. Gradually the smirk became a chuckle, and that became a laugh after looking at him again, with Wesker telling him to drop the act, since unlike most people in the world, he actually _knew_ Alexia, with there being no point to pretending like she didn't exist. It was the Agent's turn to be left in disbelief now, and all he could do was repeat that the Ashford girl had been killed with some kind of weird rocket launcher just before their confrontation over Claire.

In response to this, the blond man chuckled again, this time holding up his hand for Chris to wait a moment while he got up, and then Wesker walked around a nearby desk in order to do something with his computer. He clicked the mouse a few times, as if searching around, and then something started to come out of the nearby printer. Once that first thing was done printing, the blond man began clicking the mouse again, with something else printing off about a minute later, ending with the blond man returning to the chair with two pictures.

"Since we have a few minutes, I want you to look at something for me." He said, holding up the first picture. "This is a clear image of your lovely wife, Amelia Ashland-Redfield on the cover of _Time Magazine_, right? And now _here_… is a clear image of Alexia Ashford taken when she updated her Umbrella security permissions in Antarctica."

Chris looked, and yes the first one was from when Amelia had been featured on _Time Magazine_ right after the ribbon-cutting on Terragrigia a few years ago. The second picture was definitely of Alexia, looking exactly like he remembered her from more than a decade before, but… except for a difference in hair color and length… the faces on the two pictures were _exactly_ the same. But how was that possible, the two of them weren't related… hell, they weren't even from the same side of the world; Alexia was from somewhere in England, while Amelia's family was from the bayou in Louisiana.

"I can only come up with two possibilities, Chris." Wesker said, crumpling up the pictures and tossing them aside. "You are either the most _oblivious_ son of a bitch alive, or you're purposely allowing a Tyrant Class BOW to run free because you love her… who else do I know who did that?"

"No, you're wrong." The Agent argued, pulling harder on the restraints but not getting anywhere. "Alexia kept mutating, and I killed her with an experimental weapon, I… I still have nightmares about it."

The blond man shook his head, and explained that what Chris had were _delusions_, because the Ashford girl escaped Antarctica in a small airplane, and then murdered Umbrella's entire board of directors in order to get control of their stocks. She then sold all of it right before the company collapsed, and used that money to build Terragrigia… the revolutionary Aquapolis, in which she could continue her experiments with a constant supply of human subjects that no one would even realize were missing.

"Oh well, it's not like you'll ever be able to confront her about it." Wesker said, shrugging his shoulders. "I hate to break this to you, Chris, but you're only going to live as long as it takes to put the final touches on the latest revision of Uroboros."

"What the hell are you talking about _now_?" The Agent asked. "What can I _possibly_ do for Uroboros?"

The answer of course, was _the same thing that Jill had done_ for it. Like Excella had explained earlier, Uroboros was designed to combine with the DNA of certain kinds of people who these nutball terrorists believed were somehow superior, while consuming anyone else that it rejected. Only problem was that with the first successful batch, the Uroboros virus was actually too aggressive, and wouldn't combine with anyone. It was actually discovered by accident, during the experiments on Jill, that the antibodies produced by the Daylight vaccine could tone the aggression down a bit, so Wesker harvested this from the blonde woman's blood to create the first revision, used his own for the second, and was now using Chris the same way.

"Once these final tweaks are complete, Uroboros will finally be ready." The blond man explained. "And then I'm going to unleash it upon the entire world, burning off the worthless chaff, and leaving only a far superior breed of humans to repopulate."

"Wesker… seriously… what the _fuck_ is wrong with you?" The Agent asked, unable to understand how his enemy could seriously do… _everything_ he had done. "I mean, my God, you're like one of the villains from an old _Batman_ comic. Hey, Excella… you know this guy's gonna dick you over, right? I used to be his right hand man, but then he tried to kill his whole STARS team just so he could steal…

Suddenly Chris's words were interrupted when Wesker reached out and clamped his hand down over the Agent's nose and mouth, stopping him from breathing. Chris struggled, jerking his body around and pulling at the restraints while turning his head from side to side, but there was just no way to take a breath, and now he was starting to get tunnel vision. The Agent's lungs were screaming for breath, and if the blond man hadn't let go at the last second, he probably would've passed out or even died if unable to breathe for long enough.

"I can understand why he would want someone like _you_ out of the way." Excella replied to the previous comment after restarting the centrifuge. "You lack vision, and you're like a big, annoying _Boy Scout_, but Albert and I… we're going to change the world, together. And besides, you of all people should understand the allure of being with a superior human."

"Excella… listen to me… very carefully." Chris said, trying to catch his breath. "I know you like him… for some reason, but Wesker… he doesn't care about _anyone_ but himself. He's good at telling you what you want to hear, I know, he used to be my Captain in the RPD, but I _promise_ you… he's gonna turn on you the _moment_ you're no longer useful."

Instead of listening to him, even though honestly he didn't know what would be accomplished right now even if she did, Excella scoffed at the Agent before limping over to the table and slapping him in the face. Then she did it again, and again, which probably would have stung a lot if Chris's whole body wasn't already in so much pain from taking that beating earlier, and then the woman simply walked away. As if having been made really upset by the whole conversation, Excella left the laboratory as the door slid open and closed, leaving the Agent alone with Wesker.

"It's never easy dealing with women, is it, Chris?" The blond man asked, getting up once the centrifuge stopped. "You can talk, and talk, and talk, but once they make up their mind, there's nothing you can do… far better when they're completely obedient, like Jill."

"You're gonna pay for what you did to her." Chris said as Wesker took the blood from the centrifuge and placed it inside another machine. "I'm gonna…

The Agent's words were interrupted when the blond man vanished in a blur of movement, only to reappear right in his face while asking precisely what he thought he was going to do, and then reminding Chris of just how many opportunities he had been given in the past to take his revenge, all of which had failed. They had fought at the Spencer Estate after the truth of Umbrella's experiments was revealed and Chris had lost, they had fought both on Rockfort Island _and_ in Antarctica, both times in which he had also lost, and just now back at the underground palace he had lost again.

"So how do you plan to beat me, Chris?" Wesker continued with that same smirk. "Better yet, why don't you just _show_ me?"

Reaching down and pressing a button on the side of the table, the restraints on Chris's wrists and ankles suddenly released, allowing the Agent to reach out and grab his enemy by the shirt… just before seeing white for a second after the blond man head butted him. Collapsing back down onto the table, and dazed from the hit, there wasn't much Chris could do as Wesker forced him back into the restraints, leaving him helpless once again as the blond man laughed while returning to his experiment.


	38. Chapter 38 Sheva's Report

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Thirty Eight: Sheva's Report**

Sheva wasn't sure how long she had been passed out in the palace doorway overlooking the port, but the next time she opened her eyes everything was a lot darker. The sun had gone down, and the sky was so cloudy that if the port hadn't had electric lights, she wouldn't have been able to see anything at all, at least not until a searchlight shined down on her from the approaching helicopter. It had been the sound of those approaching rotors that woke her up in the first place, and the young woman had never been as happy to see anyone in her life, as she was when the helicopter landed and Josh Stone came over to get her.

Unfortunately, the withdraw order had not been recalled, meaning that he was the only one who had returned to the Kijuju Autonomous Zone in order to extract her and Chris after Headquarters received her call in the satellite phone, but the Captain was shocked when she told him that he was recovering Jill Valentine instead of her partner. Unfortunately, Sheva was so fatigued from the whole experience, and so sore from the beating she had just taken, that she was in no condition to tell him the whole story right there.

So the young woman was helped over to the waiting vehicle, after which Josh went back into the underground palace to retrieve the unconscious Jill, and then they took off. Chris was gone, having been captured by Wesker, and the trauma of removing that device on her chest had left the blonde woman in a near catatonic state, leaving Sheva as the only one who could tell their superiors what happened between when the Captain left them in that cave in the marshlands and when she had made that distress call.

The debriefing had begun as soon as they landed back at Headquarters, and honestly it felt like an interrogation, since she was so fatigued and sore, but at least the young woman was able to get medical treatment at the same time. This amounted to an IV because of how dehydrated she was, along with some pain killers that didn't do much, and that was it… at least none of her bones had been broken during the fight with Wesker and Jill… even though bruised ones almost felt like a break.

Josh had been able to back her up on everything that happened in Kijuju City and up through that final confrontation with Irving in the marshlands, so Sheva's report began with everything she could remember about the underground city, including how the infected people there had been executing those resistant to the plagas, with focused sunlight weapons. She hadn't really understood the point of those flowers at the decorative fountain, but the young woman described them anyway, including how Umbrella had an interest in them back in the day… which led her into the part about the old facility.

She tried to be as detailed as she could, describing the architecture, the old style of the light fixtures, and even that blind, skinned monster with the long tongue. _Licker_ was the name Excella had used to describe it, and from what the young woman saw it do with that sharpened tongue, this was a pretty accurate description. What surprised her, though, was that her superiors had already heard of such a monster before; the report of Leon Kennedy described him encountering one of those things during the Raccoon City outbreak, and Sheva couldn't help thinking that if this was the same Kennedy that Chris had gotten his plagas information from, that this guy really got around.

Up until this point, the debriefing was going really well, but then she got to the part about the modern Tricell facility that was holding what looked like more than a thousand kidnapped people from all over the world. For some reason her superiors were able to believe everything else, but when the young woman described how Excella Gionne herself had been in charge at this facility, they became skeptical. After all, the woman had donated massive funds to the BSAA, so it was a little hard to believe that she would lock one of their agents inside a pod while the other one had to fight an Uroboros monster.

Thankfully, the ambush that wiped out Alpha Team with a similar monster was already recorded, so they believed her about that part, but became skeptical again when the young woman explained that Excella was not only working with Albert Wesker, but that the blond man was using some kind of robotic device to control Jill's actions, which was why the blonde woman had been assisting Irving in the guise of the plague doctor. The device had been nothing but unrecognizable scrap when the Captain recovered it, and the cargo ship was nowhere to be found, so there was no way to prove any of this or even locate her partner, at least not until Jill woke up.

The blonde woman was in bad shape, unable to stay awake for more than an hour at a time, and her whole body shaking any time she tried to move, kind of like a heroin addict who was in detox; sweating so profusely that the hospital bed she was laying on was soaked, and constantly crying out with pain even with the medication that she was being given. All of the data that they managed to collect on what was left of the device had been sent to a Dr. Rebecca Chambers, who was some kind of advisor to the BSAA, and although there wasn't much, she had been able to figure out that the thing had been some kind of auto-injector.

As far as Rebecca could tell, the legs had been injecting some kind of chemical into her nerves, which was possibly making the blonde woman able to be controlled, but like was mentioned, the device was pretty well wrecked thanks to Sheva. As the next few days went on, however, Jill managed to stay conscious for long enough at a time to start giving them some answers, beginning with how Wesker had captured her after they had both fallen out the window during the mission to find Spencer.

She remembered falling, and then waking up strapped down to an examination table in that Tricell facility, where the blond man had taken her blood and injected her with several different chemicals before putting her inside one of those pods, where it felt like she was drowning. Then the day came when the device was attached, with the blonde woman remembering just starting to wake up after being removed from the pod to discover that her hair had changed color, and then being strapped down while that thing painfully drilled its legs underneath her skin.

After that, Jill had been unable to control any of her actions, with Wesker making her do and say degrading, unspeakable things just to test how well the device was working, and it was functioning perfectly. The worst part about the whole experience was that although she had been unable to control what she did, the blonde woman had been completely aware the whole time, and it made her start crying when she recalled that Wesker had basically made her into his pet for the last couple years. No one pressed her for the details of what happened between them, since this already seemed painful enough, but there was a single good thing about Jill being as aware as she was.

Being completely aware of her surroundings had allowed the blonde woman to listen in on all of the plans being made between Wesker, Excella, and Irving, including what the plan was for that cargo ship, and more importantly… the transponder code that was needed in order to track its location. All she could tell them about the ship itself was that not only was it fully manned by people who were infected with Type 2 Plagas, but also that there was a massive supply of Uroboros onboard… she didn't know how he was going to pull it off, but apparently Wesker wanted to achieve what he referred to as _Complete Global Saturation_… which didn't sound good at all.

With Jill's testimony to back hers up, Headquarters had no choice but to cancel the withdraw order, but since the outbreak around Kijuju was so widespread, there was no way to dedicate all the BSAA's forces to going after the cargo ship. A majority of the remaining teams were needed to keep the city's infected district quarantined while others began trying to contain the unstable Type 3 Plagas in the marshlands village, plus there was the ancient city and the facility inside it… after that not much was left.

During the mission briefing that followed, it was suggested that they simply sink the ship with missile fire from several helicopters, but Sheva informed them that this was not a good idea, since so far the only thing they knew that could hurt Uroboros monsters was fire, so it was possible that it could spread throughout the water even if the ship was sunk. This left an armed assault by the remaining teams as the only option, although the agents were going to have to be extremely careful, since the infected could use firearms just as good as any human.

On top of the dangers of the armed infected and Uroboros, there was also the matter of Albert Wesker, who was the most dangerous threat involved. Fortunately, Jill was able to provide one last piece of Intel, and it was a doozey, since up until that point everyone believed that the blond man was simply invincible thanks to his virus-induced powers. While all of this was true, what the blonde woman was able to tell them was that this virus had been a prototype, and therefore unstable, requiring that Wesker received daily injections of that same virus in order to keep him stable.

He had once specifically told Excella that he had to have one of those shots every day, no more and no less, or else things could become _problematic_ for him, but that was all Jill knew. But he had told this to Excella because she was basically the one doing the injections for him, and that she usually kept the injectors inside of a small metal briefcase that she always kept close. That meant that if the team could somehow capture her without getting killed by Wesker in the process, that they would be able to get a hold of a weapon that could hurt him… or at least _destabilize_ him, whatever that really meant.

As much as Jill wanted to go on the mission to save Chris, she was in no condition to do so, meaning that Captain Stone and his new team would accompany Sheva during the assault on the cargo ship. The team was bigger this time, about twice the size of the original Delta Team, and they were given a handful of helicopters, which was all that could be spared, but one thing was for sure… it was better than taking on an entire underground city with nothing but a spear and a flare gun.

So the mission was quickly approved, and once the helicopters were fueled up, the new team loaded up… but there were a couple of problems that would have to be resolved in the field. The first one was that no one knew the details of Wesker's plan, so there was no way of knowing how much time was left to prevent the spread of Uroboros, while the second one was that there was no way to locate Chris on the ship without doing a room to room search… if he had even managed to stay alive during the three days that had passed since his capture.


	39. Chapter 39 Storming the Ship

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Thirty Nine: Storming the Ship**

Thanks to the transponder signal that Jill had provided, the BSAA was able to track the cargo ship's location, allowing the operation to save Chris and stop Uroboros to begin just after sunset the following day. Flying as low as possible in order to stay underneath the ship's radar, three helicopters moved toward the vessel until they were just about right alongside, before quickly lifting up so that they were above the top deck and then launching their small missiles in unison.

_BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!_ Just because they couldn't sink the ship without potentially releasing Uroboros, that didn't mean that the stern couldn't be cleared out of hostiles, and since Jill knew that Uroboros was kept deep within the lower decks for containment purposes, there was no danger except for the infected. Some hits caused a dozen infected to go flying in different directions, while others struck the bottom of cargo container stacks, causing the whole thing to fall over onto even more infected, and good thing too, because there were certainly a lot of them.

An alarm began to sound throughout the ship once the attack began, and once the infected, who were all armed with rifles, got over the shock of what was happening, they returned fire. The helicopters had to move sideways a little bit now and then to avoid getting hit, but thankfully AK-47's weren't very accurate at long distances to begin with… but this was not the case with the gun turrets that were mounted on the side of the vehicles, as the infected quickly learned when they started getting cut down with large caliber bullets.

It was impossible for three helicopters by themselves to clear off the entire top deck of such a large ship, so once the stern had been secured as much as possible, the vehicles landed as close to the back as they could in order to insert the new team. Since it took a while to get into position, the infected from the bow of the ship were already moving into position to repel the invaders, so Sheva had to dive for cover as soon as she jumped down onto the metal surface. Sparks were kicked up as enemy fire bounced off the metal surfaces around her, and there was an outcry of pain when one of the last agents to jump down was struck several times as the helicopters were pulling back.

"Get to cover!" Josh yelled after moving behind one of the fallen metal containers. "Pick your targets carefully and conserve ammunition; do _not_ let them overrun us!"

Since all of the infected only spoke Swahili, it had been decided that all communication within the new team was to be done in English in order to try and keep some kind of advantage, but as more and more of the armed men appeared running toward them from the bow of the ship, this would only buy them a little extra time at best. So everyone rushed to the best covered positions that they could find, and began firing single shots at a time with their own rifles, a lot of times aiming at the approaching infected's legs to halt their advance using as few bullets as possible.

This all-out attack wasn't the complete mission, though, in fact it was just a distraction in order to keep all of the heat on the new team, while Sheva stealthily made her way across the ship toward the bridge. Even if they were unable to defeat all the heavily armed infected or put an end to whatever Wesker's final plan was right there and now, if the young woman was able to reach the bridge and take out the few infected that were probably manning it, then she could at least sabotage the ship's controls in order to buy more time for the BSAA to send in some more reinforcements.

Radio silence on her part was required in case Wesker was somehow listening in, because it would be just about the worst thing possible for Sheva to get all the way over to the bridge only to find the blond man waiting for her, so she had to do this all on her own. Thanks to her small size, the young woman was able to hide behind smaller crates then her male comrades could have done, and she even had to crawl underneath a grated steel staircase to remain unseen just as more infected were coming down to join the battle.

In fact, she did a lot of crawling for the first couple hundred meters, but after that everything seemed to calm down, at least in the immediate area. The explosions and gunfire could still be heard behind her as she crawled out from under the next staircase, but no more of the cargo container stacks had been knocked over, allowing the young woman to get to her feet and move around more freely. Just like they had planned, the vast majority of the infected had gone to attack the new team, leaving no one to guard the front section… or _almost_ no one.

Either the infected were getting smarter, or had received prior orders from someone carrying a control plaga, because Sheva nearly walked right into one of them as she came around the corner, and if he hadn't been facing the other way her whole stealth mission would have been ruined. Thankfully, the blaring alarms were drowning out the sound of her footsteps, so she was able to duck back around the corner before he turned around, but the infected man must have sensed something, because now he was slowly coming toward her.

"No… no, go away." She silently hissed before moving farther back. "Go look at something else, you _ushoga_."

But he didn't go away, and thanks to the bright lights that dotted the whole upper deck of the ship, there was no way for her to use the shadows like she had done back at the stern where most of the lights had been destroyed. So she had to keep moving back, at least until there was nowhere to go after rounding another corner; finding herself boxed in between three cargo containers stacked four high that formed a dead end. The shadow of the infected man was seen getting closer, and Sheva couldn't risk giving her position away by shooting him, so she did the only other thing available.

When the infected man reached the dead end, he snarled while looking around but didn't find anything until he looked up just in time to receive the surprise of his life. With no other options, the young woman ran up to the nearest container, and used its door handles like stepping stones in order to climb up to the third level, before jumping off just as her stalker was looking up. _Thud_! Landing right on top of him with her full body weight, which granted wasn't very much, it was enough to make him drop his rifle as they both fell to the deck, and those same alarms were enough to cover the noise while she bashed his skull in with her pistol.

It was certainly a lot easier taking these things on one at a time instead of getting ambushed by an entire city district, the young woman thought as she took the man's grenades, but now she was going to have to be extra careful because the alarms and distant explosions were making the sound of their movements just as much as hers. But from where she was the intact container stacks were creating a maze, where there could have been a hostile hiding around any corner. She couldn't see the bridge from where she was, either, so what Sheva needed was a way to see the whole deck's layout without getting spotted.

The only way she could think of to manage this was to do what she had just done to get rid of her infected stalker, but instead of jumping down she would have to climb up to the top of the stacks. Getting up there was easy enough, but in order to make sure she didn't draw any attention to herself, the young woman stayed flat on her stomach as she crawled along the tops of the containers. As much as they formed a maze down below, up there it was more like a shortcut, especially since she was above most of the ship's light fixtures.

From up there, not only was Sheva able to see the positions of every infected that she came across, but the bridge tower wasn't very far now, and it looked like this wall of cargo containers went almost all the way up to it. Plus, the battle must have been going better than expected for Josh and the new team, because every so often another of the infected guards would suddenly go running off toward the stern as if they had received some kind of a signal requesting reinforcements.

This was fine with her, since every armed man that ran off to join the battle left the bridge that much easier to get to, so that by the time the young woman reached the end of the container wall, there were no infected around to get in her way as she climbed back down to the deck. She almost lost her footing for a second, not realizing that the next container down had a broken door handle, and thereby almost causing her to fall, but she managed to swing over to the other handle, while deciding to simply leave that part out of her mission report.

Once all the way down, Sheva crouched down and made a run for the back door of the bridge tower, since it was possible that the people at the controls would see her if she went around to the front, and it came as a partial relief that the door was unlocked. Partial because now the success of the mission depended solely on her shoulders as she slowly pulled the door open and started up the metal staircase that was immediately inside. Although the young woman had a rifle, her pistol was better for operations like this involving tight quarters, so the larger weapon remained slung over her back as she moved up the stairs one step at a time toward the nerve center of the ship.

Alarms lights were flashing at the top of the stairs, although there was no sound along with them, not that anyone on the bridge was paying attention to the attack in the first place. When Sheva reached the top of the stairs, she found that the place was being manned by four infected men who would grunt or snarl as they went along with their tasks of piloting and navigating the ship… no guards though… probably had all been sent to the stern of the ship to help repel the attack.

To her it was still crazy that these people whose minds were overtaken by parasites could still perform such operations as steering a ship, since the one at the navigation board announced that their course needed to be adjusted by four degrees north, and then the helmsman repeated the course change, before turning the wheel to make it happen. The young woman wondered if given enough time and experience, could these things become just as intelligent and free thinking as humans? Hopefully, the plagas in general wouldn't be around long enough for anyone to find out… especially _these ones_ as Sheva readied her pistol and came out of hiding.


	40. Chapter 40 Taking Control

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Forty: Taking Control**

_Bang! Bang!_ Since the helmsman and the navigator were busy at their stations, Sheva decided to take out the other two first, since they were just kind of standing there near the radio and security board. So she took a deep breath, swinging her pistol toward the nearest one as she came out of hiding, sending a bullet into his head. The security board operator collapsed onto the panel, somehow silencing all of the alarms on his way down to the deck, and then the young woman quickly aimed at the radio operator just as he was reaching for a nearby rifle, pulling the trigger just as he was starting to aim at her.

_Ratta-tatta_! A short burst came from the rifle as the radio operator fell backwards against his console, each bullet sparking as it struck the metal wall of the bridge, and then the infected man just kind of slumped down onto the deck, where some discolored blood started to come from the wound in his head. By this time the helmsman and navigator were grabbing their own weapons, so the young woman started pulling the trigger of her pistol again and again while ducking behind one of the central consoles.

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_ Her shots went wild, two of them hitting the navigation console, while the third missed the navigator completely, instead hitting the helmsman in the arm just as he was pulling his own trigger. _Ratta-tatta-ratta-tatta_! Unable to aim his rifle properly after the 9mm bullet slammed into his arm, the helmsman only managed to hit the navigation console several times, including a couple shots that went into the back of the navigator's neck. This made it easy for Sheva to finish him off with one more pull of her trigger while leaning out of cover.

The young woman was about to aim at the helmsman right after, but instead found herself having to duck back behind the console after the infected switched hands and started shooting back. He was a lot less accurate than he probably was usually, thanks to using his off hand, but it was still good enough to keep Sheva from being able to return fire. While she tried to find an opening, the navigation console was sparking and smoking from being repeatedly shot, and the thing was actually starting to burn by the time she came up with an idea.

Smoke was slowly filling up the room, allowing the young woman to go unseen as she got down and crawled across the floor around the other side of the sparking console. The helmsman was reloading now, quickly slamming another magazine into his AK-47, before aiming once again toward the navigation console. The infected man kept his weapon ready, snarling while taking a cautious step forward, only to grunt and bend forward after a gunshot sent another bullet slamming into his stomach.

_Bang_! Having crawled around the other side of the navigation console, Sheva remained on the floor, rolling onto her side in order to shoot the infected man in the stomach… and then in the face as soon as he bent over far enough for her to get a clear shot. Well, that was it, the young woman thought while getting to her feet, the bridge had been taken, and… they would never know where the ship was headed, since the navigation console was showing nothing but a cracked, darkened screen while black smoke rose from the top.

"All right, now to stop this ship." She said to herself, looking around at the bridge. "Okay… how in the hell do I stop the ship?"

Looking around at the bridge, there were so many different consoles and button that she wasn't sure where to even start looking for… for what, the reverse lever like with the rotors on an airboat? Could a ship this size really be that easy? Okay Sheva, think… there were only four people up there manning the bridge, so one of them must've controlled how fast they were going, so this search should've been a lot easier now as long as it hadn't been the navigator. Radio had nothing to do with ship's speed, nor did security, so it had to be the helm.

Rushing over to the large, old-style wheel in front of the window that overlooked the top deck, the young woman found that there was a lever next to it that had words like _FLANK_, _FULL_, and _STAND_ written on the plate. There were two sets of such words, each one dominated by a section that said _AFT_ and another that said _AHEAD_, with the lever currently set at full, so… full speed ahead, did that mean? Testing the lever out, she pushed the release button and moved the lever back to stand, and nothing happened.

For a moment Sheva thought she had done something wrong, but several seconds later the young woman felt herself get slightly lurched forward while the slight vibration in the floor underneath her feet became fainter. Were the engines slowing down? Was that how to do it? A slim dead zone sat between the aft and ahead sections, so she moved the lever into that position, and a few seconds later the engines stopped completely… she had done it, the cargo ship was adrift, and at least now Uroboros would be delayed until the BSAA could send more reinforcements.

It worried her that the ship was adrift now, but then again they were dozens of miles out to sea, so it was unlikely that it would run aground or something, and with her part of the mission accomplished, it was time for the young woman to see how the others were doing. Still having to keep up radio silence so that no one knew where she was, Sheva figured that she could just look out the giant window that was in front of her… until feeling a bit silly when she remembered that this window looked forward while Josh and the rest of the new team were at the back of the ship.

Shaking her head, the young woman was about to head back toward the stairs she had used to come in, when something out the window caught her eye. A short distance away from the bridge tower, there was movement on the deck as two figures moved into the white beam from one of the nearby lights, and at first Sheva thought that they were just more of the infected, but that was when she noticed that one of them was dragging the other… and that the second one had his hands cuffed in front of him.

"Chris?" She said to herself, squinting to get a better look at both of them. "Oh my God, Chris!"

Her partner was still alive, shirtless and being pulled along by none other than Albert Wesker himself, and… and she had to do something. At first she thought about shooting out the glass and trying to snipe the blond man from there, but without the alarms to mask noise, he would definitely hear the glass breaking and then be able to dodge her shots again. No, the young woman had to get down there and sneak up on Wesker if she wanted to save her partner, and as much as she wanted to call Josh for backup, it would give her position away if the blond man was listening in.

Right, she was going to have to do this herself, so Sheva reloaded her pistol, but then holstered it in order to get her rifle ready as she headed back down the stairs, and out the door back onto the ship's top deck. Distant gunfire could still be heard coming from back where the new team was fighting off the infected, but there was no time to help them, as the young woman crept her way around the base of the bridge tower, which was actually a bit bigger around than she thought.

So far there were no more infected around waiting to ambush her, so Sheva got all the way around the tower to where a strange sight awaited her… along with a really bad smell. Upon reaching the front of the bridge tower, the young woman was shocked to see that not only was Chris being hung up onto some kind of hook by the handcuffs around his wrists by Wesker, but that there was a massive pile of dead bodies just stacked there behind them. Seriously, there had to be _dozens_ of infected bodies just tossed in the middle of the deck like it was nothing, but whatever the blond man was planning, he wasn't going to get to finish it.

_Tat_! Aiming her rifle carefully at Wesker's chest and pulling the trigger, he must have seen her because he leaned to the left in order avoid the shot… allowing the bullet to strike the shoulder of Excella, who Sheva hadn't even noticed was there. The woman jumped a little, not seeming to understand that she had been shot again until she looked down and saw the blood starting to stain her white dress, and then falling over backwards while making a strange kind of gasping… clucking sound?

"Situational awareness, Excella." Wesker coldly commented, his arm blurring for a second as he grabbed Chris by the neck. "Nice try, sweetheart, but how about you come out here where we can see you?"

He was squeezing her partner's neck hard enough to make him go red in the face, sending a clear message that if the young woman didn't come out of hiding, that he would probably just kill the Agent right there in front of her. Sheva wanted to take another shot at him, or maybe at Excella to try and force him to release Chris, but from how uncaring Wesker was acting after his own partner had been shot for the second time… she knew that there was no other option but to come out… walking into the beam of light and then putting her hands up after setting the rifle down.

"Kill her!" The wounded woman growled as she tried to get up. "Albert… kill the bitch!"

"Now, now, my dear, let's not be hasty." The blond man calmly replied, letting go of Chris's neck in order to walk toward his partner. "After all, why would _I_ kill this girl, when that honor should rightfully go to _you_?"

As soon as Wesker was away from her partner and next to Excella, Sheva reached down and picked up her rifle as quickly as she could, aiming it at them just in time to see the blond man reaching down to help her up… but then turning her arm so that he could use a small hypodermic needle to inject something into her skin. The injector had just fallen out from up his sleeve as if he had planned on using it in that manner all along, and then Wesker vanished in a blur of movement as he ran away, but making sure to smirk at the group first just as the wounded woman began to cry out in agony.


	41. Chapter 41 The Improved Batch

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Forty One: The Improved Batch**

Now completely ignoring the pain in her wounded leg and shoulder, Excella stumbled forward at first, and then progressively in all directions as if she were confused. The woman was dripping sweat, breathing heavily, and crying out as if something were stabbing her repeatedly while holding her stomach, and then she dropped her briefcase as she fell to her knees. Coughing and then retching like she was going to vomit but with nothing coming up, Excella's eyes were becoming so bloodshot that they appeared to be almost completely red, and some blood came up with the next cough.

"Excella… what happened?" The young woman asked, taking a step toward her. "What did Wesker do to you?"

"Sheva!" Chris called urgently. "Sheva, you gotta get me down; we gotta get out of here right now!"

With the way the blond man had hooked him up there, the Agent's feet weren't touching the deck, so he couldn't free himself on his own, but he had to… Sheva had been inside that pod the last time something like this happened, but Chris knew exactly what Wesker had done to his partner… the same thing he did to everyone who worked with him eventually. Again, he called to his partner, this time managing to break her paralysis so that she ran over to him, and good thing, too, because after he was too weak to do it himself after three days of being the blond man's personal guest.

"Albert!" Excella screamed as snake-like shapes started to be seen moving around underneath her skin. "Albert… no… you said… you said we would… change the world… together!"

Upon reaching her partner, the young woman tried to get him off the hook by grabbing him by the ankles and lifting him upward, but they both knew that the Agent was too heavy for her. Still, he encouraged her to keep trying; suggesting that she try to find a box or something that Chris could stand on, but never once taking his eyes off the wounded woman. In typical Wesker fashion, the blond man had injected his partner with Uroboros, and just like with the man he saw in the underground facility lab, Uroboros was rejecting her… and there were _a lot_ more bodies around.

"Sheva, shoot the chain!" He exclaimed, his eyes never moving from Excella, whose snake-like movements underneath her skin were getting more pronounced. "The virus is rejecting her, she's gonna turn into another one of those _things_!"

_Bang_! Taking out her pistol and shooting the short chain between his handcuffs, Chris cried out as the shock of the impact stung his hands as he fell down to his knees. He then reached up for her to give him a hand, but the young woman was gone… no, not gone… she was running _toward_ Excella? The Agent yelled at her to stop, that her weapon wasn't worth it, but then she ran right past the rifle that she had put on the deck, instead making a desperate grab for the briefcase that the wounded woman had dropped.

As soon as her hand closed around the handle, Excella let out one last scream that was cut off as the black snake-like tendrils broke through her skin, swarming all over her until they looked like the creature that wiped out Alpha Team… and then it went right for the bodies. The only good thing about this was that if it weren't for all those easy targets right next to the monster, the young woman probably wouldn't have been able to get away, but now that the creature had another source of organic material… just like the one down at the lab, it was getting bigger… _a lot_ bigger.

"Run, Sheva!" Chris yelled as she had to jump over an arm-like appendage that was reaching for another body. "Come on, run!"

She reached down to pick up the rifle without breaking pace, and then the young woman helped him to his feet once she got back to him, but before they made their escape, the Agent grabbed one of the red grenades that was on her belt. From experience, he knew that fire was the one and only thing that could actually hurt these monsters, so he pulled the pin and tossed it right into the center where Excella's body used to be, and then the monster shrieked when the small explosion caused its whole body to be covered in flames.

Roaring and flailing around, one of the arms busted a small hole in the deck before the creature's rapidly increasing size caused it to lose its balance and fall over… right on top of the pile of dead bodies. Hundreds of black tendrils had fallen off and shriveled into nothing thanks to the grenade, but once the monster had access to all that organic material, it not only stopped burning, but the size and mass of the whole thing increased geometrically until it was about ten times the size of the one he had seen in the underground lab.

With no choice but to run for it, he had to lean on the young woman a bit in order to stay on his feet, but the thing just kept growing with every single body that it was able to absorb… and God, there were a lot of bodies. Pulling the other red grenade off his partner's belt, Chris pulled the pin and tossed it backwards, again making the monster roar when the flames spread across its surface as if the whole thing was flammable, and now the tendrils that were falling off were the size of small tree trunks, which landed heavily on the deck with a loud _thud_ before starting to shrivel up.

They had to dive to the deck in order to avoid a swinging arm that turned out to be going after another dead body, but as big as that food supply was, it wasn't going to last forever, and then the Uroboros monster would need to seek out more difficult victims in order to sustain its newfound mass. Sheva mentioned that Josh and his new team had come by helicopter, and then maybe one of them could circle back and pick them up, which was a fine idea if not for the fact that the monster's growth was allowing some of its arms to actually slide past them, moving further toward the stern of the cargo ship, and… and spreading until there was nowhere left to run.

It wasn't actively trying to trap them, not yet anyway, still going after the dead infected, and its tendrils getting even thicker as a result until there was nowhere for them to go but through the back door of the bridge tower. The Agent was glad to see that it was unlocked, although that changed as soon as they were through, but what if the monster had seen them go in? Was it even aware enough of its surroundings to start looking for them after all the easier meals were finished? Either way, Chris shut and locked the door behind them, and even though he was moving around a little better now, he still needed a little help getting up the stairs.

"Stay low." He warned, pushing down on her shoulder as soon as they reached the top. "If it finds us here, we're dead."

Both of them got on their hands and knees, crawling past the dead infected and the still smoking navigation console until they were able to put their backs against the wall that was right underneath the window, which was the hardest place for the creature to spot them if it happened to look through the window. Off hand, Chris didn't know if the thing actually had eyes, or if it hunted by sound or even body heat, but in this instance it was better to stay safe than sorry… especially since they only had her pistol, the rifle that she passed to him, and two green grenades with which to defend themselves.

"Sweet… Jesus." The Agent whispered after sneaking a quick peek out the window. "Sheva, contact Josh and tell him to get his men the hell out of here, _right now_."

He had expected the monster to have gotten bigger, but this… each of its individual tendrils that were moving around was now as big around as a five hundred gallon propane tank, and so long that he couldn't even see the end of them as they slowly moved around. The most frightening part was that now the monster was getting so big that it was spreading itself across the entire visible front of the cargo ship, and probably the darkened parts, too, which meant that it was more than likely heading back toward Captain Stone as well.

Sheva used her radio to warn them of what was coming, because fuck radio silence at this point, and if the survivors of the new team didn't get evacuated right the hell now, the monster would gobble them up just like it was doing to the infected… which was probably why it was still getting bigger. Heh… maybe if they were lucky it would eat up all the infected, and Wesker along with it… that fucking son of a bitch… he had tried to warn Excella about what he was like, but she just didn't understand that men like don't care about anyone but themselves.

The good news was that Josh replied that one of the helicopters had enough fuel to come back for the team, but they had to pull out right now or they would never make it back to shore… not that the two agents could have made it to the extraction point, even if they had been able to wait. Now a dark shadow was falling across the bridge, making Chris and Sheva have to get down as flat to the floor as they could to avoid being detected as a very big tendril slid its way across the window, leaving a trail of black ooze that obscured the view as it passed by.

Wesker hadn't been kidding when he said that the Agent's Daylight antibodies would improve the efficiency of Uroboros, and now Chris felt guilty like all of this was his fault for not being able to do something to resist the experiments that the blond man performed on him… and now that lunatic was planning to release this nightmare on the entire world. He had known that Wesker was crazy ever since the Spencer Estate, but this was just on a whole new level… how could something like this ever hope to usher in some new kind of golden age for humanity? The whole idea was just… _stupid_. It was stupid to the point where if he hadn't been so terrified at the moment, he might have started laughing.

"What the hell are we going to do?" Sheva whispered quietly. "If this thing keeps growing, it's gonna sink the ship, and us with it… and then what if it reaches the mainland?"

"We can _not_ let that happen." The Agent whispered back. "But look at that thing, it's _massive_, and soon it's gonna be spread across the whole top deck. We… we'd need a damn _hellfire_ bomb to even put a dent, or a _nuke_, or… oh my God, Sheva, _please_ tell me you still have that satellite phone."

Thankfully, the young woman had it in one of her pouches just in case, and if he weren't married, he would have kissed her, since this little object that he thought was lost in the underground palace was about to save their lives… hopefully. She asked him what he was planning to do with it, but Chris was so focused on trying to make his shaking hands press the right numbers that he didn't reply. Okay, the call was going through… good, it was ringing… come on, pick up… please, pick up…

"Amelia!" He exclaimed when his wife picked up, then quieting down when Sheva shushed him and pointed to the window. "Hey baby, listen, listen, I'm in trouble, and I have a _really_ important question to ask you… does _Regia SOLIS_ still work?"


	42. Chapter 42 Fire from the Sky

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Forty Two: Fire from the Sky**

"I'm sorry, you are going to have your wife do _what_?!" Sheva exclaimed as quietly as possible. "Have you completely lost your mind?!"

"If you have a better plan, now's the time to speak up." Chris replied, nervously looking up as another tendril slid across the heavily darkened window. "Besides, it's no crazier than you risking your life to get Excella's briefcase… why did you want that thing so bad, anyway?"

Since there was nothing the two BSAA agents could do except lay there in the shadows for the moment, the young woman took that time to briefly explain what Jill had told her about the virus that gave Wesker his enhanced abilities. Once that was finished, she tried to muffle the sound of the latches popping open, in case the gigantic Uroboros monster outside operated on sound, in order to inspect the contents. The case was heavily padded on the inside, with several slots for what looked like injectors… all of which were empty except for the very last one in the row.

The Agent figured that the blond man must've thought all the syringes of… whatever the hell _Formula AW_ was were gone, hence why the blond man finally decided to get rid of Excella. Even though the woman had been mentally deranged, and honestly he was glad to be rid of her, Chris couldn't help feel bad… remembering how hard it hit him when Wesker first revealed his true colors to him way back in the summer of 1998. Well, if this injector was the key to finally giving that bastard what was coming to him, then so be it, and for now the syringe was going to stay tucked away safely in one of Sheva's pouches.

As for the Agent's plan for getting them out of this, honestly it was almost as likely to get them killed as waiting to be discovered by the still growing Uroboros. A few years ago, there had been a terrorist attack on the prototype city of Terragrigia, resulting in an outbreak that the combined forces of the BSAA and the FBC were unable to contain. As a last resort, the city's solar energy generating satellite, Regia SOLIS, was aimed at the city, and in the span of only a few minutes, the whole place was destroyed by the fury of the sun.

It had been a disaster that was talked about throughout the world, but the good news for this situation was that Chris's wife, Amelia, had designed and built both the city _and_ the solar energy satellite. The plan was for her to bring it online, and then aim the focused heat of the sun right on top of the spreading monster, but only for long enough to burn up the monster without destroying the cargo ship itself. Was it dangerous? Yes. Was this possibly the dumbest thing that the Agent ever came up with? Yes… but he wasn't about to let this thing somehow reach the mainland.

Now the satellite phone was vibrating, since he had turned off the ringer, again to stop the monster outside from hearing them, and upon answering it Chris smiled. Not only had Amelia still been able to access the long abandoned satellite, but all diagnostic tests reported green status as Regia SOLIS moved into position. This same strategy had once been used in an attempt to destroy evidence of wrongdoing, with Jill and the Queen Zenobia just barely managing to avoid getting vaporized… hopefully, Amelia would be a little more surgical in her operating of the controls.

Of course, now Wesker's words were echoing in his mind as the minutes went by, forcing him to consider the possibility that Amelia Ashland, the girl he had fallen in love with in Terragrigia… had really been Alexia Ashford, the girl he had fallen in love with in Antarctica… the whole time. Amelia was gorgeous and so was Alexia, Amelia had a ridiculous amount of money and so did Alexia, Amelia was smart and spoke several languages… and so did Alexia. He didn't want to believe it, but their faces and bodies were _exactly_ the same, and it wasn't hard for a woman to dye her hair and change her accent.

The voice of his wife on the phone, however, brought him back into reality as she warned him to get as many decks below the surface as possible… yeah, about that… he and Sheva were trapped inside of the bridge tower, which was the absolute highest part of the ship. It wasn't like they wanted to be there, everything had happened so quickly with Excella mutating and then eating all those corpses, and… God damn it, Wesker was gonna _pay_ for this! The only thing Amelia could tell him in reply was that they needed to find some kind of cover, because the firing sequence was already locked in, and things were going to get a lot brighter around there pretty soon.

"So that's it, you're wife's just going to _cook_ us?!" Sheva exclaimed once the call was ended, still trying to be quiet. "What the hell are we going to do?!"

"Everything's going to be okay, don't panic." Chris replied, desperately looking around for a solution. "Uh… there, the stairs… we'll wait until the satellite fires, and run to the bottom of the stairs while Uroboros is distracted. It's the best I got, and I'm pretty sure the monster's body and the ship's hull will be enough to shield us."

Did he just lie to his partner's face? Probably, since the Agent had no idea whether or not there would be enough cover to keep them from frying like an egg, but, you know… he wasn't completely sure that there _wasn't_, either, so… fifty-fifty? A slight chance was better than just lying there and waiting to die, and this plan was about to be put to the test as everything on the bridge started to become more visible. Yeah, there was an orange light coming from in between the black tendrils that were covering the window, and for a second it looked like the sun was rising… but it kept getting brighter… and hotter to the point where Chris was starting to sweat.

Oh God, here it comes, the Agent thought, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand as the light coming in through the window became as intense as the noon sun had been in Kijuju City. The metal floor was heating up now, too, getting to the point where Chris had to keep moving around so that one part of his body didn't get too hot… and then there was a roaring sound as the black tendrils suddenly shattered the glass of the window, with the Agent taking this as his signal to run.

Scrambling to his feet and running away while the giant black tendrils flailed around violently outside, Chris nearly lost his footing upon reaching the stairs, having to grab onto the already heating up guardrail in order to keep from tumbling down. Thankfully it was a little cooler at the bottom of the stairs by the door, but the temperature was slowly catching up, and then the monster screamed as the whole top section of the bridge was consumed with flame… flame that would have surely cooked both BSAA agents if they hadn't made a run for it.

All right, he wasn't literally on fire, but Chris was now sweating so badly that it was stinging his eyes, and he had to keep moving his feet around to get a moment of relief from the floor… which was heating up so much that it was starting to faintly glow red. Each breath was so hot and scratchy in his throat that it felt like the air was full of desert sand, and Sheva was gasping for breath… but everything just got hotter, and the young woman looked like she was going to faint.

The Agent tried to use his body to shield her from some of the heat, but he felt like his own skin was about to melt right off, and honestly at this rate he was about to pass out pretty soon himself. All of the metal around them was faintly glowing red now, with a cloud of fire still consuming the bridge upstairs, and Chris found himself struggling to remain on his feet, still holding Sheva as he wobbled back and forth, getting dizzy from the heat, and having to close his eyes to keep them from burning right out of his skull… but then it stopped increasing.

Everything still hurt and at that moment the Agent truly wanted to die, but then the heat stopped getting worse, and slowly… very slowly started to fade. Forcing his dried eyes open, he saw that the red glow was fading from the metal around them, while the fire upstairs had gone out, and the intensely bright light in the sky was becoming orange again as if the sun was setting. It wasn't, it was Regia SOLIS powering down, and… and holy shit, they two of them were still alive. Alive, and in desperate need of fresh air, which was why they decided to risk opening the door onto the top deck, since the monster couldn't be heard flopping around anymore.

A cool ocean wind was blowing across the ship as they emerged, sweeping away the burst of unnatural heat, which both allowed them to take a breath without feeling pain… and also to see what was left of the monster. The gigantic mass of slithering tendrils was gone, replaced by a layer of black ashes that coated the top deck… the entire top deck for as far as they could see. Good God, the thing really _had_ spread out across the entire ship. The Agent wanted to call Amelia and let her know that they had survived, but as the last of the artificial sunlight returned to night, he remembered that the satellite's rays interfered with communications for a time.

"Do you think?" Sheva asked, her voice still raspy and dry. "Do you think Wesker got caught in the blast?"

"I don't think I've ever been _that_ lucky." Chris replied, still coughing and raspy himself. "He probably ran to the lower decks as soon as he saw what was happening, and we gotta… and we gotta go after him."

Everything was rapidly cooling down, but the somewhat surgical strike on the Uroboros monster had left him severely dehydrated, along with dried, reddened skin as if he had spent about a month on a beach in Florida without any lotion. Sheva tried to take a drink from her one canteen, only to quickly spit it out, coughing and exclaiming something in Swahili that probably meant it was too hot. All right, with the bridge out of commission, and with all of the scorched surface damage to the ship, Wesker wasn't going anywhere… at least not until the two BSAA agents managed to find the cargo ship's infirmary to at least get some water and burn ointment.

There was a downward stairwell nearby, so the two of them helped each other walk over to it, and right now the only thing Chris cared about was getting to some slightly cooler temperatures as they started heading down into the lower decks.


	43. Chapter 43 Deck Ten

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Forty Three: Deck Ten**

Hissing loudly as he applied a large amount of burn ointment onto the reddened parts of his skin, Chris tensed up for a moment before sighing heavily with relief, while Sheva was having the same reaction. Since he was shirtless and couldn't reach his back, the young woman had to do that part for him while joking that she wouldn't tell Amelia, but both of them were still in too much pain from the blast from Regia SOLIS to laugh much more than a light chuckle. Thankfully, there had been directory signs leading them to the ship's infirmary, where both the ointment and a medical supply of refrigerated water had been found, allowing the two BSAA agents a moment of relief after what just happened.

The shocking part was that upon descending the stairs down into the lower decks, they discovered that the Uroboros monster hadn't just spread itself across the top deck, because that same black ash was covering the stairs as well as the floor on the next level below. Remembering how the flames from the red grenades had traveled across the whole creature's body back in the underground lab as if the whole thing were flammable, the Agent figured that the same thing must have happened when it was burned by the satellite. However, now that they were three levels down, the ash was still present on the deck, and there wasn't a single infected in sight.

Clothes and weapons, all burned and corroded by the monster's black slime were discovered all around, though, as if it had sought out every organic being on the entire ship in order to sustain its rapid growth. In some areas there had been alarms going off when the tendrils must have caused damage to some of the bulkheads during the search, and in others the fire suppression sprinklers were going off, slowly washing the black ash away… while the walls everywhere were peppered with dozens of bullet holes as if the infected had been fighting for their lives.

"So what are we going to do now?" Sheva asked, putting a little more ointment on the back of her neck. "We've got the injector, but this ship is huge, so how are we going to even _find_ Wesker, let alone _sneak up_ on him?"

"I don't know." Chris replied, still breathing a little heavy while sitting on a metal chair. "But he probably thinks we're dead, and this ship isn't going anywhere, so we've got a little time… unless…

It seemed that the Agent was on a roll for stupid and dangerous ideas, because another one popped into his head after looking around the infirmary, specifically at the emergency ship wide address system. His partner was right, this ship was huge and there was no way for them to search the whole thing before the blond man found some crazy new way to move forward with his plan, so Chris thought about it for a second… before asking the young woman to stay quiet as he got up, and walked over to the intercom.

"Wesker!" He yelled after pushing the button, causing his voice to echo there and out in the hall. "Hey, Wesker, guess what? You missed! You've managed to kill everyone else around here, but you _keep… missing… the… target_! But you never _were_ a very good shot, huh?"

"_Chris… still alive, are we_?" His enemy's voice replied after several seconds of silence. "_I swear, you Redfields are a bit like cockroaches, aren't you? Well, have fun licking your wounds; I'm about to move on to the next phase of the operation, and there's no more time to play, so… goodbye, Chris_."

If the blond man had some other way off the ship, then there was no way Chris could stop him from carrying out his plan, meaning that he had to find a way to make his enemy stay put for a while. Communications were still down from the satellite blast, so there was no way for him to call for backup, nor could Regia SOLIS be used again… although Wesker probably didn't know that. So instead of allowing the conversation to end, the Agent went on the offensive, loudly declaring that the blond man wasn't going anywhere, unless he was capable of making his escape within the next five minutes.

"Tell me where you are so we can end this once and for all." Chris continued, no longer yelling but with an intense tone. "Face me right now, or the next blast from Regia SOLIS will fry this ship like an egg, because I'd rather die than let you spread that shit all over the world… and you _know_ I'm not bluffing."

"_Hmm… perhaps you're not_." Wesker's voice replied after another long silence. "_Very well, I'm in the starboard cargo bay on deck ten… do not keep me waiting_."

"Are you crazy?!" Sheva exclaimed once the system was turned off. "Now he knows we're coming, and if I remember right, Wesker beat the shit out of you last time."

This was true, but and they may have lost the element of surprise, but at least now they knew where the blond man was, and as a bonus, he didn't know that the young woman had survived, too, which gave them another advantage. If Wesker thought that Chris was stupid enough to come after him alone, and the blond man definitely thought he was, then maybe it was possible to have the young woman sneak up on him during the upcoming fight. If the injection worked the way Jill claimed it did, then all they had to do was stab Wesker with it, and then… well, hopefully _something _good would happen.

Feeling a lot better thanks to the ointment and water, the two BSAA agents left the infirmary, and looked for another directory sign, having to go back to the main stairwell in order to find it. There was no label for the starboard cargo bay, but deck ten was below them, and getting to the right level was a pretty good start. God damn, there was _still_ a good amount of black ash covering the stairs and decks as they went farther down, finally stopping a couple stairs down from deck eight, but there were still no infected around.

"They must've all tried to fight off Uroboros." Chris commented, looking up and down the corridor upon reaching deck ten. "Just when you thought the worst thing out there was a mind controlling parasite, right?"

"It's like all of these terrorists are trying to out-do each other." Sheva replied, kicking a little of the last bit of ash with her foot. "Umbrella had the T-Virus, but then Los Illuminados said _oh yeah, well we got Las Plagas_. Apparently Tricell wanted to play, too, so they stepped up and said, _oh yeah? Well we got somethin' that'll eat both zombies and plagas_, _so fuck both of you_."

Again, the young woman was right, but the most frightening part about how greedy and evil all these terrorist groups were, was that they didn't seem to realize how hard it was to keep BOW's contained. For example, as bad as the outbreaks were in the Spencer Estate and Raccoon City, they had been accidents. Umbrella never intended to destroy Raccoon City, they just kinda ran with it once the viruses got loose… kind of like Excella Gionne probably never intended to get swallowed up by her own creation.

Eventually, after walking what felt like was along the entire length of the ship, the directory signs began to mention the cargo bays, both port and starboard. The starboard one was where they were headed, so they turned at the proper junction in the corridor, and then down another short metal staircase to a door that was marked as _STARBOARD CARGO_. It had been a while since the trail of black ash ended, meaning that the Uroboros monster hadn't even gotten close to this area, and therefore it was possible that there could still be more infected people beyond the door along with Wesker.

Taking a deep breath and then turning the latch as slowly and quietly as he could, Chris pushed the door open just enough so that both he and Sheva could see through the crack into the room beyond. A large open chamber was the first thing he saw, brilliantly illuminated with overhead fixtures as if it were a warehouse, and yeah, there were a bunch of armed infected men inside. Teams of four were pushing large carts over toward something that at first the Agent thought was a large black boat, but then he realized that it was some kind of cargo jet.

What the hell was a cargo jet doing in the lower levels of this ship, he wondered? And more importantly, _how_ had it gotten in there in the first place? There must've been a way… maybe the far wall opened, since the kind of thrusters mounted on the vehicle's wings were the ones that allowed for vertical takeoff… yeah, had to be that, because there was no runway, and this deck was ten floors down. But why a plane like this, and what were the infected loading onto it?

"Chris, look at those carts." The young woman said. "Those long things stacked up, are those… Chris, are those _missiles_?"

He had to squint a little because the carts were so far down and away, but yeah that was what it looked like. About nine feet long, and thin like an old _Sidewinder_, each missile was colored black and stamped with the letters _UR_, followed by a dash and some kind of serial number. One after another, the missiles were unloaded from the carts and carried up the plane's cargo ramp, but he couldn't see what happened to them after that. From the back, the Agent couldn't tell if the plane was fitted with launchers, but that didn't matter right now, since he was finally starting to understand what Wesker's plan was.

"Jesus, that's a lot of missiles." Chris commented, leaning in just enough to see some more. "So what's he going to do, fly around and just start shooting large cities with Uroboros missiles? No, can't be… that kind of plane doesn't have the fuel capacity to reach more than a few from here."

"You're right, it doesn't." A deep voice replied from behind, making a knot form in his stomach. "Want a closer look?"

Balling up his fist and turning around while swinging, the Agent wasn't fast enough to land the punch before Wesker caught it in his hand, and then he saw white for a second when the blond man head butted him. Before Chris could recover, his enemy raised his leg and booted him in the chest, lifting the Agent off his feet as he was sent crashing right through the door, landing on the grated metal platform that was above the cargo area. Grunting in pain when he came to a stop hard against one of the guard rail supports, Chris looked back into the corridor to see that the blond man had turned his attention to Sheva.

The young woman kicked at him, but he grabbed her ankle, and then Wesker lifted it up as high as he could, while stepping on her other foot so that she was forced into a kind of vertical splits that sounded really painful by the way she was crying out. Now closing his own fist, and slamming it into Sheva's stomach, the blond man let go of her leg, only to grab her by the back of the belt before she could collapse… and then tossing her right at Chris just as he was starting to get up.

Even though the young woman was small built, the Agent wasn't able to catch her in his weakened state, so when she collided into him, the force of the impact caused both of them to fly backwards… tumbling over the guard rail, and falling down into the cargo area below.


	44. Chapter 44 Complete Global Saturation

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Forty Four: Complete Global Saturation**

Well, so much for sneaking up on him, Chris thought just before both he and Sheva landed on the metal floor below with a hard, echoing _thud_. The drop had only been about twenty feet, which although not enough to cause serious harm, still hurt really bad, and now the Agent was struggling to get up while Wesker casually made his way down the stairs. As for the infected, they ignored the intruders completely, continuing with their business of loading missiles onto the cargo jet as if nothing out of the ordinary had been happening.

"Sheva, come on." He said, grabbing his partner's arm. "You gotta get up… he's coming."

Still lying where she hit the floor, the young woman appeared to have been injured a lot more by the fall than Chris had, since she was balled up into a fetal position, and crying out loudly when he tried to help her up. The blond man, who had reached the bottom of the grated stairs by this time, laughed about Sheva's misfortune while walking toward them, but then reassuring the Agent that he would be more than happy to keep him company for a little while.

_Ratta-tatta_! Since Chris still had the rifle that the young woman had given him, he aimed it and pulled the trigger, but was only to get off a short burst before his enemy was on him. Becoming a blur again while doing a kind of spinning flip to avoid the bullets, Wesker closed in and pulled the weapon out of the Agent's hands, tossing it toward the plane, before slapping Chris in the mouth. This wasn't enough to knock him down, but _man _did it sting, and then the blond man honked his nose, following this by smacking him on the stomach so hard that the Agent fell on his ass while a red handprint started to appear.

"Seriously, Chris, what was your plan here?" Wesker asked as he tried to get up again. "We've done this a half dozen times since the Spencer Estate, and it always turns out the same way… or were you trying to sneak past me in order to sabotage the plane?"

"There's no point in stopping the plane." Chris groaned, stumbling a bit as he got up. "Sure, you got plenty of missiles, but your fuel tank's too small to reach more than, what… _two_ cities from here? And Regia SOLIS can target those places just as easily as this ship, even if NATO _didn't_ shoot down your plane… that isn't even a stealth model, you moron."

He expected the blond man to become enraged upon realizing that his plan was doomed to fail before it even started, but instead he just chuckled to himself, commenting that even though the Agent had all the pieces to the puzzle laid out right in front of him, he was still too stupid to figure it out. Apparently, Wesker had been well aware that the fuel tank was too small to go around launching missiles at individual cities, on top of the fact that there were no launchers on the plane, _and_ that he had specifically chosen the aircraft because it _wasn't_ made for stealth… he just needed the massive cargo space.

"But that doesn't make any sense, even for a _lunatic_ like you." The Agent replied, taking a quick look at the plane. "Everyone knows about Uroboros and the mission here, and as soon as they detect your plane, they'll blast you out of the… oh, my God."

"I see you're _finally_ starting to catch up, Chris, good for you." The blond man continued, smirking again. "I wasn't joking before when I mentioned _complete global saturation_, and there's no better way to achieve this than an explosion in the upper atmosphere."

Chris started to get chills as Wesker elaborated on his plan, explaining that he was going to fly the plane into a steady incline, and then lock the autopilot while he bailed out, so that by the time the United Nations were able to launch a missile, the explosion of all those little warheads would create a cloud of Uroboros that would easily coat the whole upper atmosphere… and then come back down with the rain. The blond man might have been completely unhinged at this point, but that plan of his sounded like it could actually work… no matter what, the Agent had to stop that plane from taking off.

Running toward Wesker and ramming his shoulder into the blond man's stomach, Chris actually succeeded in driving him back a step of two, before crying out and falling to his knees after feeling his enemy's fist connect with his back. Taking a second to breathe, the Agent tried to come back up with a punch, but Wesker caught his fist with one hand, only to backhand him with the other. Not letting go of the captured fist, the blond man pulled him back for another hit… and then another… and then another, before finally allowing him to fall down.

Chris landed on his face, and was about to try getting up again, when he was pushed back down when the blond man stepped on his back while walking away. The remaining infected must've finished loading the missiles, since they were taking the empty carts and leaving through another large door, probably going back above deck to fill in for the ones who had been controlling the ship before, and now Wesker was walking… _away_ from the plane? Aw crap, he was walking toward where Sheva was still lying on the floor.

"One of these days, Chris will learn to stop bringing his women along to face me." The blond man said, reaching down and grabbing her by the hair. "So, what shall we do while he is lying over…

The Agent was using the door of a nearby forklift to pull himself up just as Wesker was forcing Sheva to stand, when suddenly the blond man grunted in surprise while taking a step back and looking down at the small object that was sticking out from his chest. It took Chris a second to realize that it was the injector they had been planning to stab his enemy with, and now that the young woman was on her feet, he could tell that she had been faking her injury ever since the fall in order to lure him in.

Letting go of her and stepping back long enough to look down and remove the now empty injector from his chest, the blond man started to become angry as he tossed the syringe aside and reached out to grab her… only to miss completely as he took a stumbling step sideways. _Bang! Bang! Bang!_ Seeing that he was being affected by the injection, Sheva took out her pistol and started shooting, actually managing to hit Wesker in the arm before he became a blur to back off. Funny thing was, the blond man stopped for a second mid-run and stumbled again, only to blur over toward the plane, where he stopped again and fell to his knees just shy of the cargo ramp.

Wesker tried to get up, but had to lean on one of the ramp's hydraulics to keep from falling over again. The wound in his arm was already healed, but the blond man cried out in pain as he ripped off his sunglasses and dropped them on the deck, revealing that his glowing red eyes were now flickering rapidly as if the overdose of his stabilizing virus was causing some kind of malfunction in his body. If that was true, then this was their chance to stop him once and for all, so Chris started running toward the plane… just as Wesker became a blur to move up the ramp.

Without the ability to run like the damn _Flash_, it was a long distance across the cargo bay, with the Agent having to run around fork lifts and step over the empty pallets that once held the missiles. When he was about half way there, an alarm started going off, with spinning yellow lights activating as… as the whole back wall of the cargo bay started to slide open. Chris had been right, this place was meant for vertical takeoff, meaning that there was only a very short time to get there before the blond man's plan was put into action.

Reaching down to grab the rifle from where he landed, the Agent didn't break pace, continuing to sprint as hard as he could, and now the plane's engines were starting to warm up. Even with vertical takeoff, the plane was still going to have to drive over to the edge of the platform, giving Chris the time he needed to jump aboard just as the ramp was starting to raise. Grabbing onto the hydraulic and turning around to give his partner a hand, the Agent gasped when he saw that although Sheva was running as fast as she could, she was still a good distance away.

"Sheva, come on!" He yelled as the ramp got higher. "You can make it!"

The young woman was sprinting for all she was worth, huffing and puffing as she slowly closed the distance, and in another couple seconds she would be there… if the engines hadn't started to rev up. Waving her off while frantically yelling for Sheva to get back, the young woman seemed to understand a second before the engines fired at full power, with the force of the vertical takeoff throwing his partner backwards, sending her rolling back across the cargo bay just as the ramp closed.

Hopefully, she hadn't been hurt too badly by the engine wash, but there was no way for him to check on her as the plane was felt lifting off, tilting heavily upward so that he fell against the closed ramp. All of the missiles were securely tied down against the walls with cargo netting and ratchet straps, and the only light inside the aircraft was coming from dim red bulbs that were mounted right into the walls, as was standard procedure in almost all aircraft flying at night. Up ahead at the other end of the plane, however, the door to the cockpit was closed, with Wesker no doubt already plotting a course into the upper atmosphere… but Chris wasn't about to let that happen.

Even though the cockpit door was both sealed and strong enough to withstand anything he could do to it, the Agent was a trained pilot, and he knew exactly what would happen to the aircraft's course if, say… the cargo ramp were opened mid-flight. There were safety features against hitting the release button, but nothing controlled from the cockpit could override the manual release crank. So Chris unlocked the safety lever, and started turning it, causing a sudden lurch in the plane's engines as the pressure escaped and howling wind began to rush in. Alarms were going off throughout the plane as the whole thing suddenly started leveling off, unable to keep climbing because of the drag.

Unless Wesker wanted to lose all his fuel and crash before even reaching the altitude needed for his plan to work, he was going to have to come out of the cockpit and deal with the problem manually… and Chris would be waiting for him with the rifle ready when the door finally started to open.


	45. Chapter 45 The Only Option

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Forty Five: The Only Option**

_Ratta-tatta-ratta-tatta_! Pulling the trigger as soon as his enemy emerged from the cockpit, Chris did his best to hit him, but the blond man was still able to become a blur, even though it wasn't as seamless or for as long at a time as usual. In fact, Wesker was starting to look pretty bad when he took cover behind one of the supports; breathing heavily while his eyes continued to flicker like a lightbulb with a loose connection. From where he was hiding, there was no clear shot, so the Agent tried something clever, firing at the metal wall next to him, and actually managing to his the blond man in the back with one while all the others went wild.

Was it a good idea to be shooting inside of a plane that was filled with Uroboros-tipped missiles? Probably not, but the aircraft was still climbing regardless of the partially open ramp, just slower than it had been before. When his enemy took cover again, Chris saw that although his wounds were still regenerating, it was nowhere near as fast as before, so he stepped out into the open to make his move… at the same time that Wesker came out of hiding to utilize his own strategy.

Becoming a blur as he dodged the first two shots, the blond man allowed himself to take one right in the chest in order to get close to the Agent, seemingly unhindered by the bleeding wound when he grabbed Chris's arm and hip-slung him so hard that he was almost at the very front of the plane when he crashed to the floor. The wind was knocked out of him, but he tried to get up as quickly as he could, looking back at the rear of the plane just in time for the wind to stop after the ramp was closed again.

"Nice try, Chris." Wesker growled, ripping off the manual crank as the plane resumed its original course. "But your attempt to stop me has failed, and once you use up the last of your bullets… well, you get the idea."

Although his enemy had been weakened, it wasn't nearly as much as Chris hoped, and there couldn't have been more than ten bullets left in the rifle. God, this would have been so much easier if Sheva hadn't been left behind on the cargo ship, because at least then she could have held him off while the Agent took control of the plane. It would've been so easy to take the aircraft off autopilot, and then take it back to the ship, but now there was no way to stop this thing from reaching the optimal point for global saturation, at least not without getting himself killed.

"You're going to die in here, Chris." The blond man continued, remaining behind the hydraulic. "You will be vaporized when the United Nations shoots down this plane, but look on the bright side… at least you won't have to watch everyone you care about getting eaten alive by Uroboros."

As much as the Agent was wracking his mind, there really didn't seem to be a way out of this, but… maybe… maybe if he was really going to die inside this plane, then the least he could do was make sure that Wesker was there with him for the whole ride. A single, desperate, absolutely retarded option flashed through his mind, and then for a moment time seemed to slow down as he saw the faces of everyone he cared about… the survivors from STARS, his comrades at the BSAA, his sister Claire, his wife Amelia… or Alexia, if the blond man had been telling the truth… now he would probably never know.

"Hey Wesker, do you remember when I said I'd pay you back for betraying STARS?" Chris called, trying to keep his hands from shaking as he prepared to make his move. "Well, this one's for Bravo Team, you son of a bitch!"

With that, the Agent turned away from the blond man, aiming the rifle through the cockpit door, and then pulling the trigger. _Ratta-tatta-ratta-tatta_! He was right, there were about ten bullets left in the magazine, and now sparks were flying as each one of them slammed into the plane's control panels, causing an alarm to go off as the aircraft suddenly banked right. Now there was black smoke and just a little bit of fire coming from the gages, and to make matters worse, a couple of the bullets had struck the windshield, allowing the wind to rush in once again.

Chris thought he heard Wesker scream in rage just as they went into a downward spiral, the whole world seeming to spin around as the plane went down, but thankfully the missiles had been strapped down very well. As for the vehicle's two inhabitants, they were both thrown around a bit, but then the spinning actually started to slow down when the cargo ramp began to open. It must have been some kind of malfunction with the controls, because it was more than halfway open by the time the Agent managed to grab onto one of the cargo nets to keep himself from getting thrown around more.

The blond man had managed to steady himself as well, holding onto the hydraulic near the ramp and yelling something at Chris… but the wind was too loud for it to be heard. Then he let go, Wesker allowing the wind to rip him out of the plane to where he vanished into the darkness, and then a couple seconds later everything stopped. The spinning, the falling, all of it came to a powerful, crashing halt that sent him flying away from the cargo net, and knocking several of the Uroboros missiles loose from their straps as the plane was left tilted upward.

With the whole world spinning again as he tumbled across the floor and out the ramp, the Agent expected to have to start swimming for his life after hitting the open water, but instead the rolled out onto solid ground. Really rocky and uneven terrain that he was too dizzy to even sit up on even as the Uroboros missiles landed on the rocks next to him. God damn, his head hurt, and his whole body was sore like he had taken a spin in a clothes dryer, and the air… the air was so dry and hot that it burned a little each time he took a breath.

There was light there, too, the whole rocky landscape illuminated by a dim red light that he didn't understand at first… but then his mind got clear real quick when the whole plane moved. It shifted a little, as if having landed in some loose dirt, but then the Agent's ears stopped ringing, allowing him to hear the sizzling that was coming from… from the plane? Finally managing to sit up after seeing that there was an odd glow coming from the bottom of the aircraft itself, Chris finally realized where he was… after getting a good look at the river of molten rock that was very slowly melting the plane's metal hull.

It was a volcano, one of those constantly bubbling and flowing ones like in Hawaii, and somehow the plane had landed right in the middle of it. This was good, since with the exception of the two that had landed next to him, each of the black missiles that came into contact with the glowing lava was melting nicely… well, that takes care of Uroboros. Looking around as the last of the fogginess cleared away from his vision, there was no sign of Wesker, so Chris struggled to move closer to one of the remaining missiles, and then put his feet against it in order to push.

Even though those were small for missiles, the thing was still hard to move, but the strain was worth it when the weapon fell over the edge, and started to sizzle along with the others. Great, he thought, eventually all of that stuff would be melted away along with the plane, leaving only one missile left for him to dump into the river, but that could wait at least until he caught his breath. It was nothing short of a fucking miracle that the Agent hadn't been killed or crushed on impact, and hopefully Wesker was drowning in the open ocean somewhere, so Chris just sat there, coughing a bit from the lava's smoke as he tried to catch his breath.

Well, this was just… fucking wonderful, he thought while trying to get up but only making it as far as his hands and knees. Yeah, the blond man was gone and Uroboros was about to be melted into nothing, but now the Agent was trapped there inside of an active volcano, with no way to call for help, and the only available vehicle about a third of the way melted by lava. Seriously, this whole setup was like a poorly written action film, and was just so… so damn _ridiculous_ that Chris couldn't help but laugh a little, even though it hurt to do so.

"It's a volcano." He said to himself, laughing so hard now that he failed the next attempt to get up. "I crash landed a plane inside a God damn volcano."

Although truly happy to still be alive, the Agent knew that he couldn't survive for long in a place like this, so he put all his remaining strength into it, and managed to get up to his knees without needing the support of his hands. All right, so far so good, and even though his whole body felt like he had been trampled by bulls, at least nothing appeared to be broken. If this was a whole island instead of just a volcano, then he could possibly find water and shelter in the lower areas, and if not, then at least getting to the coast would allow him to cool off with the water and get fresh air, because breathing in this smoke couldn't have been good for him.

Okay… ready, and… up. Silently giving himself commands, Chris got up to his feet in a kind of awkward squatting position, needing to brace himself with one arm for a minute, and then… yes! Still dizzy and a little wobbly in the legs, the Agent managed to stand up, afraid that he was about to fall over, but then remaining as the last of the dizziness faded from standing up too fast. All right, just one last missile to push into the river, and then it was time to find a way out… if there even was one.

No, this wasn't the time for negativity; one battle at a time was the key to success, and right now the battle involved moving that last missile. The plane continued to sink into the glowing magma so slowly that it would probably be an hour or two before the whole thing was gone, but the missile was going to be history a lot sooner than that, so the Agent bent down so that he could get his arms underneath the weapon, and now he had to…

"_Chriiiis_!" A voice yelled, causing some of the color to drain from his face.

It came from around the other side of the plane, and when the Agent turned his head to look, he saw that there, standing on the rocks on the other side of the magma river, was a very much alive Albert Wesker.


	46. Chapter 46 A Fair Fight

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Forty Six: A Fair Fight**

Pushing against the missile with all his strength, the thing must've been stuck or something because it just wouldn't move, and Chris needed to get it into the lava before Wesker found a way across. Unfortunately, the blond man used the slowly sinking plane as a bridge, climbing up onto the wing, and then casually walking across the body in order to jump down right near the Agent, forcing him to back away from his task. Something was different, though… Wesker's eyes were no longer glowing at all, and… and he hadn't used _any_ enhanced speed to get across the plane.

"This must feel like quite the win for you." The blond man said, his fists shaking as he tried to not lose his temper. "You've exposed the activities of Tricell and their ties to Umbrella, you've contained a major Plagas outbreak… and once again you've ruined everything I was trying to do."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not done yet." Chris replied, balling up his own fists. "See… I'm willing to bet that the overdose worked, and you've lost your powers… or else you would just be strangling me right now, right? And if that's true… then what's stopping me from tossing your ass into that lava right there?"

Wesker raised an eyebrow to this threat, but then started to laugh, his anger seeming to fade away while explaining that this wasn't the first time he had overdosed. There had been some trial and error back in 1998, since it was a prototype virus, and this exact same thing happened to him, but not to worry… because it eventually stabilized. Maybe _three or four_ extra shots would have done something permanent, but in about an hour his powers would return and he would be good as new.

"An hour?" The Agent scoffed. "You think you're still going to be alive an _hour_ from now?"

"Yes, and quite longer." The blond man chuckled. "Or did you forget how badly I beat you at the Spencer Estate? I don't seem to remember having any powers then."

It was true, back when Wesker's true colors had been revealed, Chris, Jill, and Rebecca Chambers all tried to fight him off, but the blond man had just been too much for them. If it wasn't for the timely arrival of Barry Burton, all three of them would have been dead, but this wasn't 1998 anymore… this was 2010, and the Agent was a far better fighter now than he had been back at the RPD. Not giving his enemy the chance to get ready, Chris rushed forward and punched him in the jaw, feeling a rush of satisfaction when Wesker groaned as he stumbled backwards.

Not giving him a second to recover, the Agent continued the attack, throwing another punch, but then gasping when the blond man avoided it while catching his arm, and then hip slinging him onto the ground. Wesker went to punch him while he was down, but Chris brought up his leg and kicked him in the mouth, giving him the time he needed to get back up. Attacking immediately as soon as he was on his feet, the Agent was intent on knocking his enemy's teeth out, but the blond man avoided this hit by spinning around and then kicking him right in the stomach.

His enemy tried to grab him in a headlock while he was bent forward, but Chris slugged him in the ribs, allowing the Agent to free himself long enough to grab Wesker by the front of the shirt and head butt him, before pulling his leg back, and slamming his knee into the blond man's stomach. They both stumbled as a result of Chris trying to keep holding onto the shirt, but then the blond man bent down and surprised the Agent by wrapping his arms around his waist and lifting him just a couple inches off his feet, so that Chris got the wind knocked out of him when Wesker slammed him onto the ground.

Even without his powers, the blond man had always been a tough son of a bitch, and honestly the Agent was still hurting from, well… everything that had happened to him over the past several days, so it was pretty safe to say that he wasn't quite at a hundred percent. This was part of the reason why he was unable to stop Wesker from getting on top of him after the tackle, straddling Chris's chest so that the blond man's knees were pinning his arms down, and then punching him in the side of the mouth.

"Really, Chris? You fight like a nineteen year old _girl_." Wesker said, punching him with the other fist along while saying the accented word. "No, I take that back… it was a lot _harder_ to get Claire down on her back than _you_."

Chris tried to squirm his way free, but this effort only got him two more punches in the mouth, before he was able to kick his legs up high enough to get them wrapped around the blond man's head. With enough leverage to pull his enemy over onto the side, the Agent let go with his legs, but only so that he could pick up a nearby rock and bash his enemy right in the face with it just as he was trying to get up. Wesker fell down on his back as a result of the hit, and Chris ran forward to use the rock again, but the blond man lifted his own legs up at the last second, planting both feet into the Agent's chest and using the momentum to flip him forward.

Now the pain and fatigue of everything that had been going on was _really_ starting to catch up with him, making Chris a lot slower to get up this time, and breathing heavily while Wesker's foot came at his face. _Whack_! The heel of his enemy's boot caught him in the forehead just as he was getting up, making the Agent stumble sideways several steps before landing on his hands and knees, and then he received a hard kick to the rear, causing Chris's face to slide across the rocky terrain.

"Do you understand yet, Chris?" The blond man asked while the Agent crawled bit to try getting up again. "You might have destroyed my supply of Uroboros, but I can always make more, and planes are cheap these days, so I can't really lose here… especially not to a weakling like _you_."

Picking up another rock that was within reach, Chris got to his feet while turning around to hit him with it, but Wesker grabbed his wrist and pulled the rock from his hand, before swinging his own arm around and striking the Agent in the stomach with it. Gasping for breath as he was sent reeling back, Chris's back came up against something smooth, causing him to bend over backwards a bit, and only then did he realize that he was leaning on the last Uroboros missile. He tried to right himself, but was stopped and forced back down when Wesker put his foot on the Agent's chest… standing over him while holding up the rock in a threatening manner.

"Pathetic… you even got a fair fight, and you _still_ couldn't win." The blond man commented. "This is why all the worthless chaff like you will be swept away, leaving only those of superior stock to forge ahead in a…

"Jesus Christ… will you just… shut up?!" Chris interrupted in between labored breaths. "If you're gonna… kill me then… kill me but… stop with the… bullshit!"

For a moment Wesker just stood there looking down at him as if he were annoyed by the interruption, but then just shrugged before raising his arm and bringing the rock down with all his strength. There was no way for the Agent to defend himself or roll out of the way with the blond man pinning him there like that, so Chris allowed his legs to simply slide out from under him, leaving him to collapse to the ground while the rock struck the missile instead.

There must've been a lot of Uroboros material compressed into each of those missiles, because as soon as the rock made a dent in the casing, a spray of pressurized black gas shot right into the blond man's face, causing him to cough and stumble backwards while Chris crawled away from the damaged missile as fast as he could. Even with the Daylight vaccine, the Agent knew how aggressive Uroboros was, and didn't want to risk getting infected… he wasn't sure what criteria was used to decide who was worthy, but Chris had a funny feeling that he wasn't on the list.

As for Wesker, he rubbed his eyes, coughing and groaning in pain as he fell to his hands and knees as familiar looking movement could be seen underneath his skin… and then he cried out loudly when dozens of black tendrils burst out of his body. Like with Excella, and everyone else the Agent had seen who got attacked by this stuff, the blond man's whole body soon vanished underneath the swarming, squirming mass of tendrils, leaving the start of another monster like the one that he had encountered in Kijuju City's recycling center… and this was fitting.

"You got what you wanted, Wesker!" Chris yelled, still scooting farther away from the newly formed monster. "Your whole world covered with Uroboros… I hope it's everything you dreamed it would be!"

He wasn't too crazy about trying to fight off another one of those creatures, since every other time had almost resulted in his death, but at least the Agent no longer had to deal with Wesker, and now all of his comrades that the blond man betrayed could rest in… wait, what was happening? The squirming mass of tendrils had suddenly stopped moving, remaining still for several seconds, and then actually starting to reduce in size. The shape of the monster's newly formed body vanished as all the tendrils separated, revealing parts of Wesker's still intact body as the black snakes actually retracted into his skin.

More and more of the blond man's body was exposed now, revealing that the tendrils hadn't harmed him at all, and then it was over; the last of the tendrils vanished into Wesker's skin, leaving him kneeling there on the ground as if nothing had happened, and then the blond man opened his eyes… revealing that they were glowing red once again as if… as if the Uroboros monster had actually supercharged him.

"It _is_, actually." Wesker answered to his question. "Uroboros is _exactly_ what I dreamed it would be, but you know what they say, Chris… one man's dream is another man's nightmare."

Laughing as he said those corny words, the blond man swung his arm sideways, causing… causing a long and intertwined mass of black tendrils to shoot out from his palm like a collapsible whip, and then smash a large boulder to pieces. There was no way that Chris was capable of facing his enemy like this, even if he _hadn't_ been alone and unarmed, so he ran… the Agent ran for his life, moving aimlessly across the volcano while Wesker's laughter echoed behind him.


	47. Chapter 47 The Flames of Judgement

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Forty Seven: The Flames of Judgement**

Of course… _of-fucking-course_ Wesker had to be one of the few who Uroboros actually liked, so now instead of the blond man being eaten alive by the black tendrils, he was swinging them around from his hand like a damn whip while Chris ran for his life. But where was the Agent supposed to go? This volcano was like a giant crater, filled with boulders and ledges, paths that went nowhere, and high rock walls around the distant edges that he wasn't sure he could climb out of even if Chris somehow managed to get there.

"Why are you running away, Chris?" Wesker laughed, destroying a large rock with a swing of the tendril-whip. "I thought you wanted to fight me."

While he probably had the strength to easily overtake the fleeing Agent, the blond man instead kept pace with him, forcing Chris to dive out of the way of that powerful whip each time he dared to slow down, like his enemy was simply toying with him for amusement. Regardless of whether or not this whole thing was a serious incident to Wesker, the Agent was left with no choice but to keep going, trying his best to keep distance between them by climbing over ledges and taking steeper paths… but just not gaining any ground.

Heavily out of breath and exhausted nearly to the point of passing out, Chris continued to climb up a steep incline, using any ledge or foothold he could find in order to keep moving, only to find out that this slope had been a dead end. Reaching the top, and breathing heavily while falling to his knees, the Agent looked down and saw that he was high above the river of lava, right above the plane that was about a third of the way melted by this time… but also noticing that there was nowhere else to go as Wesker approached.

"Cornered yourself, did you?" The blond man asked, slowly getting closer. "Your life is going to end in a few seconds, Chris… so do you want to jump into the fire, or get _very_ painfully consumed by Uroboros?"

Without waiting for him to answer, Wesker roared while swinging the tendril-whip, and if Chris hadn't jumped for his life, the squirming black mass would've consumed him instead of just destroying more rocks. Of course, his current situation wasn't much better, watching his enemy get further away as the temperature around him rapidly increased… but instead of landing in a puddle of molten rock, the Agent was startled when his back slammed down onto something solid. Immediately starting to slide down some kind of smooth surface, he reflexively grabbed onto the edge to stop himself, and only then did Chris realize that he had landed on the wing of the melting plane.

The aircraft was still slowly sinking into the river of magma, but at this rate there was still more than an hour until it melted away completely, which would give the Agent plenty of time to pull himself up to his feet and find steady footing in order to walk all the way across the body of the plane to the rocky shore. It wasn't a permanent solution to his predicament, since Wesker was still up at the top of the cliff, and would still have to be dealt with somehow, but at least Chris wasn't cornered anymore, and now there was time to…

"I'm coming for you, Chris!" The blond man yelled as more black tendrils protruded from his body, wrapping around him like snakes. "There is no escape!"

With that, his enemy let out an inhuman roar as he leapt down from the top of the cliff, and the Agent ran for it. Regardless of the risk of losing his footing and falling into the molten river, Chris sprinted as fast as he could across the plane's main body to try and escape, but he had only gotten a few steps onto the other wing when Wesker landed _hard_ on the other one with a loud _thud_. Suddenly he was being lifted into the air as the wing he was standing on shot upward, catapulting the Agent back the way he came, and then knocking the wind out of him after he ended up rolling across the rocky terrain.

It wasn't until he was able to look back at the current condition of the plane that he was able to understand what just happened; Wesker's increased weight and velocity hitting the wing hard enough to shift the entire aircraft onto its side so that Chris was sent flying while the blond man… while the blond man screamed when he was sent tumbling down into the lava. For a moment he vanished completely, allowing silence to fall across the volcano crater, but then Wesker reappeared, the top half of his body splashing up to the surface like the creature from the black lagoon, and screaming like one of those Hunter things from back at the Spencer Estate.

Although most of the red hot lava simply fell off when he broke the surface, the blond man's body was coated in flames, as were all the black tendrils that were rapidly falling off before vanishing into the river. It was hard to believe that even someone as powerful as Wesker could even be _alive_ after something like that, but then his enemy waved his arm, sending out another massive tendril-whip shooting across the river right toward him like some kind of last ditch attempt to win the battle.

It the squirming mass hadn't already been on fire, breaking apart as the hundreds of individual black snakes splashed down into the river and then littered the shore, Chris probably would have been dead, but luckily the whole thing just gave up and collapsed a couple meters from where he had landed. Wesker tried again, as if killing him was more important than trying to get himself to shore, but this time the tendril-whip didn't even make it across the lava, and now the fire coating the blond man's body had intensified, but it was too late for him to get himself out of the river, since he couldn't even manage to get a single step when he tried.

"Chriiiiiiiiiiiis!" Wesker screamed as fire even started spewing out of his mouth. "You're not getting out of here aliiiiiiiiiiive!"

The blond man's hair was gone, all burned off by the fire as was just about all of his skin, and the burning black tendrils continued to fall out from inside him as if Uroboros was still multiplying as fast as it could to try and survive. Instead of making another attempt to escape, however, Wesker just screamed again as he raised both arms up into the air, creating an even bigger whip consisting of flaming tendrils that were rising up, and up, and up… until the whole thing just collapsed.

Maybe his enemy's plan was to make the thing fall over on top of him, Chris wasn't sure, but what the blond man got instead was a million burning tendrils raining down on top of him… as he slowly sank down into the molten river. Wesker screamed in rage one last time as the bulk of the last tendril-whip he created crashed right down onto him, and when that giant mass of tendrils was all burnt up by the molten rock, the blond man was… he was just gone. The last few black tendrils burned up in little sizzling puffs of smoke, and then all was quiet across the crater as the plane slowly continued to sink.

Remaining where he was for several minutes, Chris was honestly scared that his enemy was going to suddenly jump out of the lava and attack him again, but this didn't happen, and still nothing had happened by the time that the Agent was able to drag himself to his feet. Coughing from both the pain in his body as well as the fumes kicked up by the lava, the feeling of finally being rid of the man who had caused so much pain in the world, was overshadowed by the fact that there was no visible way out of this crater.

Damn it, he should have been able to jump in the air and shout in joy for getting the vengeance for his comrades in STARS, and everyone else important to him that Wesker had either hurt or killed, but even though Uroboros had been stopped and the world was safe… God damn it, there _had_ to be a way out. Looking around for another way to get back across the river, that wasn't possible now since the plane was turned on its side, so the Agent climbed back up that slope and looked everywhere, but now… there was just nothing.

He was so tired… tired, sore, and thirsty more than anything, so Chris sunk down to his knees, continuing to look around in the hopes that he would see some magical way to escape that he had just overlooked before, but there wasn't… hey, what was that? There was a sound now, sort of like a rumbling that could barely be heard over the bubbling of the molten river, but whatever it was, it was getting closer. The sky was filled with thick clouds, leaving the dim red light from the crater as the only illumination, but… wait a second, there was something up there in the sky.

Needing to rub his dry, bloodshot eyes in order to see more clearly, at first the Agent thought that he was hallucinating, but no there it was, able to be both seen and heard… it was a helicopter. Sliding back down from the slope, and then waving his arms frantically while heading back toward the melting plane, Chris figured that they had been tracking the aircraft's transponder or something, and he had never been so happy to see the BSAA logo on the side of the helicopter as it landed, in his whole life.

Trying to walk toward it, but then falling on his face as the last of his strength faded, the Agent could feel the rush of wind from the aircraft's rotors for a while, and then someone was grabbing his arms to help him up. No, it was _two_ someone's, and Chris was pretty sure that he heard Sheva's voice at some point while he was being almost carried back over to the helicopter, but honestly he was about to pass out, so it wasn't sure. Someone else was talking now as he was being loaded inside, but now the Agent's biggest struggle was just to keep his eyes opened, while the sounds of the helicopter taking off and basically everything else became muffled… a struggle that he failed shortly after takeoff.

And why not? Wesker was dead, for _real_ this time, Uroboros was taken care of, and everything was good… so why not… why not just take a little nap… just for a little while?


	48. Chapter 48 A Lucky Man

**Uroboros: Resident Evil V**

**Chapter Forty Eight: A Lucky Man**

As with everything involved in organizations that were supervised by the United Nations, the debriefings and mission reports took forever, that is once Chris had recovered enough to even give a report. Even though he had done nothing wrong, and the overall outcome had been the best one possible given the severity of the outbreak in the whole Kijuju region, it still felt like he was a kid being sent to the Principal's office as these ridiculous bureaucrats questioned and criticized every decision that he had made in the field… God, it was as if these pencil-pushing morons thought they knew what it was like on the ground in the middle of an outbreak… none of them would've lasted three minutes in Raccoon City, that was for sure.

In the end it was case closed, and after saying their goodbyes Sheva and Captain Stone returned to the BSAA's West Africa division, while the Agent finally got to go back home to America for the first time in two months. He was used to this kind of thing, with different assignments keeping him away for a little as a few days, or as long as four months one time, but it was always nice to get to go home, especially ever since there had been someone there waiting for him. Chris couldn't wait to put his arms around Amelia, but… but Wesker's words suddenly flashed through his mind as he stood there in front of the door.

To tell the truth, they had been playing on a constant loop ever since getting on the plane to leave Africa once the briefings were done, and hadn't let up for one moment between landing in JFK Airport in New York City, the cab ride that followed, and even during the long elevator ride up to the luxury penthouse apartment that his wife owned… along with the whole building… God _damn_, Amelia was rich. But had she really gotten all this money from killing Umbrella's board of directors? Had Chris really been so blind that she could've really been Alexia Ashford all along?

Feeling nervous at the thought of this being true, the Agent tried to keep calm while putting his key into the door, even though his hand was shaking a little as the lock opened, but he had to keep himself under control, just in case the blond man's accusations were true. Maybe he could be smooth about it, and just kind of snoop around without Amelia knowing what he was looking for, allowing everything to turn out fine no matter what the truth was. But then again, what could Chris really do if… if he had been with Alexia this whole time?

Closing his eyes for a second, and then pushing the door open, the Agent tried to be cool as he walked into the lavishly decorated apartment with its hardwood floors, granite countertops, and sliding glass doors that offered a spectacular view of the city, even during daylight hours like it was now. However, as his eyes scanned across the whole place, the one thing he didn't see was his wife. She must've gone out somewhere, he thought while heading toward the hallway… good, that would give him some time to look around and see if there was anything that could link her to…

Suddenly an arm came around the corner and grabbed him, startling Chris as he was pulled into one of the smaller bedrooms, and then he was pushed up against the wall so that Amelia could give him a kiss. Even though this took him by surprise, his wife was a great kisser, making him forget about Wesker's warning as he put his arms around her, making out for a little while before those words once again flashed through his mind. The Agent didn't want to believe it, but the doubt was enough to ruin the mood, and like most women, the brunette immediately picked up that something was wrong.

She asked him about it, and now Chris had a choice in how to proceed; he could play it off and say that he was just tired from the mission, which was true, or he could just bluntly confront her with what his enemy said. If those two pictures hadn't looked so identical, the Agent would have ignored it completely, and if she _was_ Alexia, he would have to confront her eventually, right? Hopefully she wasn't, and they could laugh about the whole thing, but Chris was terrified about how Amelia could possibly react to her cover being blown in that scenario.

"Baby, I have to tell you something." He said, swallowing hard while his mouth ran dry. "When I was on my mission in Africa, I ran into Wesker, and he's dead now, but… but he told me, uh… he said that… shit, you're gonna think I've gone crazy."

"Chris, it's all right." Amelia replied softly as… as her southern accent vanished completely. "From the look on your face, I think I know what he said… but the _last_ thing I want is for you to be afraid of me."

Oh no… no, no, no, no, no… no, this wasn't happening. This was a dream, yeah… he was still asleep on the plane, because there was no way Wesker was telling the truth. His wife was at home waiting for him, and definitely _not_ speaking in a British accent… but if this was a dream, then why was he sweating so much all of a sudden, and… why was his stomach all knotted up? For a few seconds he tried to deny it, saying that she was joking with him, but then Amelia held up her hand and snapped her fingers, causing a tiny bit of flame between her fingers as a fire ignited in the fire place… and her hand took on a familiar green color for a few seconds before fading back to normal.

"A… Alexia?" Chris asked, failing to keep his voice from breaking. "But… you… what… but I… killed you."

"No silly, I just let you _think_ you did." The brunette replied, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "I faked my death, and created a new identity so I could build Terragrigia with Umbrella's money, but then you came back into my life… and I wasn't about to let you go a second time."

Holy shit, _everything_ Wesker had told him was true, and now Amelia/Alexia was freely confessing to everything she had done since 1998, including killing the board of directors and even roasting Jessica Sherawat _like a Christmas goose_ after having Tobias Liquid track her down. She admitted that it might have been a bit excessive, but the brunette had been really angry at the time for the how many _perfectly viable_ experiments got ruined in the attack by Il Veltro, on top of the loss of the city itself and all those cruise liners… but starting up again was easy when you were as rich as she was.

"Wait, you're… you're still experimenting? On _people_?!" Chris stammered, intensely angry and frightened at the same time. "Why… why are you doing all this? Why would you tell me these things?"

"Chris… is it really so hard to believe that I _love_ you?" Amelia/Alexia asked. "I'm doing this to make the world a better place, and I'm telling you because there's nothing you can do about it. Everyone who is an _actual_ threat to me is either dead or on the payroll, and… brace yourself, my love, but… this is not the first time we've had this conversation… it's the _sixth_."

The Agent was more confused than anything because of that last bit she said, and just stood there stupidly while the brunette described how she had bluntly told him who she was back when he was living on Terragrigia, and then the second time she had dropped little hints so that he could figure it out for himself. According to Amelia/Alexia, Chris had actually attacked her the third time, when he figured it out all on his own… but that was fine with her, since they just ended up having sex on the floor.

But that was impossible, he thought as she described the fourth and fifth times that her identity had been revealed, the Agent would have remembered something like that, but there was just nothing that he could think of for their entire relationship that even gave him a hint about who she really was. Part of Chris was thrilled, because he had fallen madly in love with Alexia back in Antarctica, and killing her with that experimental weapon had broken his heart… wait a minute, he had _seen_ her explode with his own eyes, so… how was she standing there at all?

"No, you only _think_ that, my love." Amelia/Alexia explained, giving him a kiss on the lips. "The same way that you don't remember me saving you from all those Hunters on Terragrigia, or when I ripped Jack Norman's heart out with my bare hands on the Queen Dido. I can change your memories to be anything I want, but only as long as the new ones fit with your personality… or else your mind won't accept them, and _that_ nearly killed you last time."

"So, you've been, what… _hypnotizing_ me?!" The Agent exclaimed. "I can't… I can't believe this… you've been alive this _whole_ time, pretending to be someone else right in front of me, and now… now you're gonna break my heart again. I still love you Am, er, Alexia, but no one's gonna believe I didn't know… this is gonna ruin my career, or I could… I could end up in jail… I mean, you killed…

His words were interrupted as the brunette moved forward, pressing her body up against his while they kissed, and this went on for quite a while with their arms around each other, before Amelia/Alexia once again reassured him that everything was going to be all right. Again insisting that she loved him more than anything on Earth, the brunette claimed that she would _never_ force him to choose between the BSAA and her, because she knew that fighting monsters and whatnot was what truly made him happy.

"Chris, I _promise_ you that everything is going to be just fine." She said as they hugged. "You're going to keep your career _and_ me, and you won't have to compromise your morals for even a second… so, let's rewrite history."

Suddenly the brunette put her hands on both sides of his head, and the Agent's vision scrambled like an old TV that had gone to static after losing signal. For a moment he couldn't move, speak, or even form a conscious thought, but then the interference vanished completely, and his eyes snapped open to reveal that it was dark outside. All the lights were off, allowing the lights out in the city to be seen through the window, and that was when he realized that he was lying down in his own bed at home.

God, the jet-lag from the plane ride home from Africa must've still been affecting him, and it didn't help that he just had the weirdest dream… a dream that involved Wesker's warning, and now the Agent felt like such a fool for even considering them for a second. Now that the sleepy fog was clearing from his mind, Chris remembered walking through the apartment door, and being greeted by his beautiful, provocatively dressed wife, who led him into the bedroom… and they hadn't left that same room since.

"You havin' trouble sleepin', sugar?" His wife asked, yawning a little as she rested her head on his chest. "I swear, you come back havin' more bad dreams every time you leave."

"No, I'm fine, Amelia." He replied, holding her closer. "Facing Wesker again, you know, it just… it just brought up some real bad memories."

Yeah, he should've known that his old enemy would have a way of fucking with him even from beyond the grave, but now that Wesker was dead, the Agent could move on with his life. All of his old scores from the past had been settled now, by a fight to the death inside a volcano, of all places, and now hopefully there would be a decline in bioterrorism so that he could spend a little more time at home. Chris would never give up the BSAA, not so long as the threat of BOW's remained, but it was sure nice to be rich… rich, and married to the most wonderful woman in the world. He sure was a lucky man to have all that happiness in this crazy world… yeah… he really _was_ a lucky man.


End file.
